“But you said you saw a cat once:  what did that say to
     you?—­It said it would tear me in pieces, if I would not set
     my hand to the book.

     “She said her mother baptized her, and the Devil, or black
     man, was not there, as she saw; and her mother said, when
     she baptized her, ‘Thou art mine for ever and ever.  Amen.’

     “How did you afflict folks?—­I pinched them.

“And she said she had no puppets, but she went to them that she afflicted.  Being asked whether she went in her body or her spirit, she said in her spirit.  She said her mother carried her thither to afflict.

     “How did your mother carry you when she was in prison?—­She
     came like a black cat.

“How did you know it was your mother?—­The cat told me so, that she was my mother.  She said she afflicted Phelps’s child last Saturday, and Elizabeth Johnson joined with her to do it.  She had a wooden spear, about as long as her finger, of Elizabeth Johnson; and she had it of the Devil.  She would not own that she had ever been at the witch-meeting at the village.  This is the substance.

     “SIMON WILLARD.”

The confession of another of her children is among the papers.  It runs thus:—­

     “Have you been in the Devil’s snare?—­Yes.

     “Is your brother Andrew ensnared by the Devil’s
     snare?—­Yes.

     “How long has your brother been a witch?—­Near a month.

     “How long have you been a witch?—­Not long.

     “Have you joined in afflicting the afflicted persons?—­Yes.

     “You helped to hurt Timothy Swan, did you?—­Yes.

     “How long have you been a witch?—­About five weeks.

     “Who was in company when you covenanted with the
     Devil?—­Mrs. Bradbury.

     “Did she help you afflict?—­Yes.

     “Who was at the village meeting when you were
     there?—­Goodwife How, Goodwife Nurse, Goodwife Wildes,
     Procter and his wife, Mrs. Bradbury, and Corey’s wife.

     “What did they do there?—­Eat, and drank wine.

     “Was there a minister there?—­No, not as I know of.

     “From whence had you your wine?—­From Salem, I think, it
     was.

     “Goodwife Oliver there?—­Yes:  I knew her.”

In concluding his report of the trial of this wretched woman, whose children were thus made to become the instruments for procuring her death, Dr. Cotton Mather expresses himself in the following language:—­

“This rampant hag (Martha Carrier) was the person of whom the confessions of the witches, and of her own children among the rest, agreed that the Devil had promised her that she should be queen of Hell.”

It is quite evident that this “rampant hag” had no better opinion of the dignitaries and divines