that he did not then say so.  But there is no appearance of any criminal proceedings having been had, by the grand jury or otherwise, against “Sister Bishop” on the occasion.  On the contrary, Mr. Hale seems to have acquiesced in the opinion, that the derangement of the woman was aggravated, if not caused, by her being overmuch given to searching and pondering upon the dark passages and mysterious imagery of prophecy.  The truth, in all probability, is, that Mr. Hale’s suspicion was an after-thought.  The effect produced upon his mental condition by the statements and actings of the “afflicted children” in 1692 was unconsciously transferred to 1687.  The delusion, in which he was then fully participating, led him to put a different interpretation upon the suicidal wounds and horrible end of the wretched maniac, five or six years before.

A piece of evidence, which illustrates the state of opinion at that time, relating to our subject, given in this case, is worthy of notice.  Samuel Shattuck was a hatter and dyer.  His house was on the south side of Essex Street, opposite the western entrance to the grounds of the North Church.  Before her removal to the village, Bridget Bishop was in the habit of calling at Shattuck’s to have articles of dress dyed.  He states that she treated him and his family politely and kindly; or, as he characterized her deportment after his mind had become jaundiced against her, “in a smooth and flattering manner.”  He tells his story in a deposition written by him, and signed and sworn to in Court by himself and wife, June 2, 1692.  It is as follows:—­

“Our eldest child, who promised as much health and understanding, both by countenance and actions, as any other children of his years, was taken in a very drooping condition; and, as she came oftener to the house, he grew worse and worse.  As he would be standing at the door, would fall out, and bruise his face upon a great step-stone, as if he had been thrust out by an invisible hand; oftentimes falling, and hitting his face against the sides of the house, bruising his face in a very miserable manner....  This child taken in a terrible fit, his mouth and eyes drawn aside, and gasped in such a manner as if he was upon the point of death.  After this, he grew worse in his fits, and, out of them, would be almost always crying.  That, for many months, he would be crying till nature’s strength was spent, and then would fall asleep, and then awake, and fall to crying and moaning; and that his very countenance did bespeak compassion.  And at length, we perceived his understanding decayed:  so that we feared (as it has since proved) that he would be quite bereft of his wits; for, ever since, he has been stupefied and void of reason, his fits still following of him.  After he had been in this kind of sickness some time, he has gone into the garden, and has got upon a board of an inch thick, which lay flat upon the ground, and we have called him; he would come