in the house, the child had one of her fits, but made no mention of Goodwife How; and, when the fit was over, and she came to herself, Goodwife How went to the child, and took her by the hand, and asked her whether she had ever done her any hurt; and she answered, ’No, never; and, if I did complain of you in my fits, I knew not that I did so.’  I further can affirm, upon oath, that young Samuel Perley, brother to the afflicted girl, looked out of a chamber window (I and the afflicted child being without doors together), and said to his sister, ‘Say Goodwife How is a witch,—­say she is a witch;’ and the child spake not a word that way.  But I looked up to the window where the youth stood, and rebuked him for his boldness to stir up his sister to accuse the said Goodwife How; whereas she had cleared her from doing any hurt to his sister in both our hearing; and I added, ’No wonder that the child, in her fits, did mention Goodwife How, when her nearest relations were so frequent in expressing their suspicions, in the child’s hearing, when she was out of her fits, that the said Goodwife How was an instrument of mischief to the child.’”

Mr. Payson, in reference to the same occasion, deposed as follows:—­

“Being in Perley’s house some considerable time before the said Goodwife How came in, their afflicted daughter, upon something that her mother spake to her with tartness, presently fell into one of her usual strange fits, during which she made no mention (as I observed) of the abovesaid How her name, or any thing relating to her.  Some time after, the said How came in, when said girl had recovered her capacity, her fit being over.  Said How took said girl by the hand, and asked her whether she had ever done her any hurt.  The child answered, ‘No; never,’ with several expressions to that purpose.”

The bearing of Elizabeth How, under accusations so cruelly and shamefully fabricated and circulated against her, exhibits one of the most beautiful pictures of a truly forgiving spirit and of Christlike love anywhere to be found.  Several witnesses say, “We often spoke to her of some things that were reported of her, that gave some suspicion of that she is now charged with; and she, always professing her innocency, often desired our prayers to God for her, that God would keep her in his fear, and support her under her burden.  We have often heard her speaking of those persons that raised those reports of her, and we never heard her speak badly of them for the same; but, in our hearing, hath often said that she desired God that he would sanctify that affliction, as well as others, for her spiritual good.”  Others testified to the same effect.  Simon Chapman, and Mary, his wife, say that “they had been acquainted with the wife of James How, Jr., as a neighbor, for this nine or ten years;” that they had resided in the same house with her “by the fortnight together;” that they never knew any thing but what was good in her.  They “found, at all