putting them on the legs and hands of Goodwife Cloyse, Easty, Bromidg, and Green; chains for Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn; shackles for ten prisoners; and one pair of irons for Mary Cox.  When we reflect upon the character of the prisoners generally,—­many of them delicate and infirm, several venerable for their virtues as well as years,—­and that they were kept in this cruelly painful condition from early spring to the middle of the next January, and the larger part to the May of 1693, in the extremes of heat and cold, exposed to the most distressing severities of both, crowded in narrow, dark, and noisome jails under an accumulation of all their discomforts, restraints, privations, exposures, and abominations, our wonder is, not that many of them died, but that all did not break down in body and mind.

Sarah Buckley and her daughter were not brought to trial until after the power of the prosecution to pursue to the death had ceased.  They were acquitted in January, 1692.  Their goods and chattels had all been seized by the officers, as was the usual practice, at the time of their arrest.  In humble circumstances before, it took their last shilling to meet the charges of their imprisonment.  They, as all others, were required to provide their own maintenance while in prison; and, after trial and acquittal, were not discharged until all costs were paid.  Five pounds had to be raised, to satisfy the claims of the officers of the court and of the jails, for each of them.  The result was, the family was utterly impoverished.  The poor old woman, with her aged husband, suffered much, there is reason to fear, from absolute want during all the rest of their days.  Their truly Christian virtues dignified their poverty, and secured the respect and esteem of all good men.  The Rev. Joseph Green has this entry in his diary:  “Jan. 2, 1702.—­Old William Buckley died this evening.  He was at meeting the last sabbath, and died with the cold, I fear, for want of comforts and good tending.  Lord forgive!  He was about eighty years old.  I visited him and prayed with him on Monday, and also the evening before he died.  He was very poor; but, I hope, had not his portion in this life.”  The ejaculation, “Lord forgive!” expresses the deep sense Mr. Green had, of which his whole ministry gave evidence, of the inexpressible sufferings and wrongs brought upon families by the witchcraft prosecutions.  The case of Sarah Buckley, her husband and family, was but one of many.  The humble, harmless, innocent people who experienced that fearful and pitiless persecution had to drink of as bitter a cup as ever was permitted by an inscrutable Providence to be presented to human lips.  In reference to them, we feel as an assurance, what good Mr. Green humbly hoped, that “they had not their portion in this life.”  Those who went firmly, patiently, and calmly through that great trial without losing love or faith, are crowned with glory and honor.