that hath befallen me in the times of my travails.  And therefore your petitioner humbly prays that Your Honors would be pleased to admit of some other women to inquire into this great concern, those that are most grave, wise, and skilful; namely, Mrs. Higginson, Sr., Mrs. Buxton, Mrs. Woodbury,—­two of them being midwives, Mrs. Porter, together with such others as may be chosen on that account, before I am brought to my trial.  All which I hope your honors will take into your prudent consideration, and find it requisite so to do; for my life lies now in your hands, under God.  And, being conscious of my own innocency, I humbly beg that I may have liberty to manifest it to the world partly by the means abovesaid.

     “And your poor petitioner shall evermore pray, as in duty
     bound, &c.”

Her daughters—­Rebecca, wife of Thomas Preston; and Mary, wife of John Tarbell—­presented the following statement:—­

“We whose names are underwritten—­can testify, if called to it, that Goody Nurse hath been troubled with an infirmity of body for many years, which the jury of women seem to be afraid it should be something else.”

There is no intimation, in any of the papers, that the petition of the mother or the deposition of her daughters received the least attention from the Court.]

The evidence in the case of Rebecca Nurse was made up of the usual representations and actings of the “afflicted children.”  Mary Walcot and Abigail Williams charged her with having committed several murders; mentioning particularly Benjamin Houlton, John Harwood, and Rebecca Shepard, and averring that she was aided therein by her sister Cloyse.  Mr. Parris, too, gave in a deposition against her; from which it appears, that, a certain person being sick, Mercy Lewis was sent for.  She was struck dumb on entering the chamber.  She was asked to hold up her hand, if she saw any of the witches afflicting the patient.  Presently she held up her hand, then fell into a trance; and after a while, coming to herself, said that she saw the spectres of Goody Nurse and Goody Carrier having hold of the head of the sick man.  Mr. Parris swore to this statement with the utmost confidence in Mercy’s declarations.

The testimony of three persons particularly is required to be given, as illustrating the extraordinary extent to which the minds of those involved in the affair were under infatuation or hallucination.

Mrs. Ann Putnam was about thirty years of age.  For six months she had been constantly absorbed in what was then, as now, regarded as spiritualism.  Her house had been the scene of a perpetual series of wonders supposed to be disclosures and manifestations of a supernatural character.  Apparitions, spectral shapes of living witches, ghosts of their murdered victims, and demons generally, were of daily and hourly occurrence.  The dread secrets of the world unknown had been revealed to her in waking fancies and dreams