CHAPTER XXX.
Eight Legal Murders on Witch Hill.
A mile or so outside of the town of Salem, the ground rises into a rockyledge, from the top of which, to the south and the east and the west, avast expanse of land and sea is visible. You overlook the town; the tworivers, or branches of the sea, between which the town lies; the thicklywooded country, as it was then, to the south and west; and the wide,open sea to the eastward.
Such a magnificent prospect of widespread land and water is seldom seenaway from the mountain regions; and, as one stands on the naked brow ofthe hill, on a clear summer day, as the sunset begins to dye the west,and gazes on the scene before and around him, he feels that the heavensare not so very far distant, and as if he could almost touch with thesemortal hands the radiance and the glory.
The natural sublimity of this spot seems to have struck the Puritanfathers of Salem, and looking around on its capabilities, they appear tohave come to the conclusion that of all places it was the one expresslydesigned by the loving Father of mankind for--a gallows!
"Yes, the very spot for a gallows!" said the first settlers. "The veryspot!" echoed their descendants. "See, the wild "Heathen Salvages" canbehold it from far and near; the free spoken, law-abiding sailors candescry it, far out at sea; and both know by this sign that they areapproaching a land of Christian civilization and of godly law!"
I think if I were puzzled for an emblem to denote the harsher and moreuncharitable side of the Puritan character, I should pick out thisgallows on Witch Hill near Salem, as being a most befitting one.
This was the spot where, as we have already related, approaching it fromthe north, Master Raymond had his interview with jailer Foster. But thatwas night, and it was so dark that Master Raymond had no idea of itscommanding so fine a view of both land and water. He had been in Bostonduring the execution of poor Bridget Bishop; and though he had oftenseen the gallows from below, and wondered at the grim taste which hadreared it in such a conspicuous spot, he had never felt the leastdesire, but rather a natural aversion, to approach the place where suchan unrighteous deed had been enacted.
But now the carpenters had been again at work and supplanted the oldscaffolding by another and larger one. Now the uprights had been addedtoo--and on the beam which they supported there was room for at leastten persons. This seemed to be enough space to Marshall Herrick andSquire Hathorne; though at the rate the arrests and convictions weregoing on, it might be that one-half of the people in the two Salems andin Ipswich, would be hung in the course of a year or so by the otherhalf.
But for this special hanging, only eight ropes and nooses were prepared.The workmen had been employed the preceding afternoon; and now in thefresh morning light, everything was ready; and eight of those who hadbeen condemned were to be executed.
The town, and village, and country around turned out, as was natural, ina mass, to see the terrible sight. And yet the crowd was comparatively asmall one, the colony then being so thinly settled. But this, to MasterRaymond's eyes, gave a new horror to the scene. If there had been acrowd like that when London brought together its thousands at Tyburn, itwould have seemed less appalling. But here were a few people--notalienated from each other by ancestral differences in creed or politics,and who had never seen each other's faces before--but members of thesame little band which had fled together from their old home, holdingthe same political views, the same religious faith; who had sat on thesame benches at church, eaten at the same table of the Lord's supper,near neighbors on their farms, or in the town and village streets; nowhunting each other down like wolves, and hanging each other up in coldblood! This it was that set apart the Salem persecution from all otherpersecutions of those old days against witches and heretics; and whichhas given it a painful pre-eminence in horror. It was neighbor hangingneighbor; and brother and sister persecuting to death with the foulestlies and juggling tricks their spiritual brothers and sisters. And theplea of "delusion" will not excuse it, except to those who have notinvestigated its studied cruelty and malice. Sheer, unadulteratedwickedness had its full share in the persecution; and that wickednesscan only be partly extenuated by the plea of possible insanity or ofdemoniacal possession.
Marched from jail for the last time]
The route to the gallows hill was a rough and difficult one; but thecondemned were marched from the jail for the last time, one by one, andcompelled to walk attended by a small guard and a rude and jeeringcompany. There was Rebecca Nurse, infirm but venerable and lovely, thebeloved mother of a large family; there was the Reverend GeorgeBurroughs, a small dark man, whose great physical strength was enough,as the Reverend Increase Mather, then President of Harvard College,said, to prove he was a witch; but who did not believe in infantbaptism, and probably was not up to the orthodox standard of the day inother respects, though in conduct a very correct and exemplary man;there was old John Procter, with his two staffs, and long thin whitehair; there was John Willard, a good, innocent young man, lied to deathby Susanna Sheldon, aged eighteen; there was unhappy Martha Carrier fourof whose children, one a girl of eight, had been frightened intotestifying before the Special Court against her; saying that theirmother had taken them to a witch meeting, and that the Devil hadpromised her that she should be queen of hell; there was gentle, patientand saintlike Elizabeth How, with "Father, forgive them!" on her mildlips; and two others of whom we now know little, save that they weremost falsely and wickedly accused.
There also were the circle of the "afflicted," gazing with hard dry eyeson the murder they had done and with jeers and scoffs on their thin andcruel lips.
There, too, were the reverend ministers, Master Parris of Salem village,and Master Noyes of Salem town, and Master Cotton Mather, who had comedown from Boston in his black clothes, like a buzzard that scents deathand blood a long way off, to lend his spiritual countenance to theterrible occasion.
Master Noyes, however, the most of the time, seemed rather quiet andsubdued. He was thinking perhaps of Sarah Good's fierce prediction, whenhe urged her, as she came up to the gallows to confess, saying to herthat, "she was a witch, and she knew it!" Outraged beyond all enduranceat this last insult at such a moment, Sarah Good cried out: "It is alie! I am no more a witch than you are. God will yet give you blood todrink for this day's cruel work!" Which prediction it is said in Salem,came true--Master Noyes dying of an internal hemorrhage bleedingprofusely at the mouth.
It was not a scene that men of sound and kindly hearts would wish towitness; and yet Joseph Putnam and Ellis Raymond felt drawn to it by anirresistible sense of duty. Hard, indeed, it was for Master Raymond; forthe necessity of the case compelled him to suppress all show of sympathywith the sufferer, in order that he might more effectually carry out hisplans for Dulcibel's escape from the similar penalty that menaced her.And he, therefore, could not even ride around like Master Putnam, with afrowning face, uttering occasional emphatic expressions of hisindignation and horror, that the crowd would probably not have enduredfrom any one else.
There were some incidents that were especially noticeable. SamuelWardwell had "confessed" in his fear, but subsequently taken back hisfalse confession, and met his death. While he was speaking at the footof the gallows declaring his innocence, the tobacco smoke from the pipeof the executioner, blew into his face and interrupted him.
Then one of the accusing girls laughed out, and said that "the Devil didhinder him," but Joseph Putnam cried, "If the Devil does hinder him,then it is good proof that he is not one of his." At which some few ofthe crowd applauded; while others said that Master Putnam himself was nobetter than he ought to be.
The Reverend Master Burroughs, when upon the ladder, addressing thecrowd, asserted earnestly his entire innocence. Such was the effect ofhis words that Master Raymond even hoped that an effort would be made torescue him. But one of the "afflicted girls" cried out, "See! therestands the black man in the air at his side."
Then another said, "The black man is telling him what to say."
Bu
t Master Burroughs answered: "Then I will repeat the Lord's prayer.Would the Devil tell me to say that?"
But when he had ended, Master Cotton Mather, who was riding around onhis horse, said to the people that "the Devil often transformed himselfinto an angel of light; and that Master Burroughs was not a rightlyordained minister;" and the executioner at a sign from the official, cutthe matter short by turning off the condemned man.
Rebecca Nurse and the other women, with the exception of their lastshort prayers, said nothing--submitting quietly and composedly to theirlegal murder. And before the close of one short hour eight lifelessbodies hung dangling beneath the summer sun.
Joseph Putnam and Master Raymond, and a few others upon whom the solemnwords of the condemned had made an evident impression, turned away fromthe sad sight, and wiped their tearful eyes. But Master Parris andMaster Noyes, and Master Cotton Mather seemed rather exultant thanotherwise; though Master Noyes did say; "What a sad thing it is to seeeight firebrands of hell hanging there!" But, as Master Cotton Mathermore consistently answered: "Why should godly ministers be sad to seethe firebrands of hell in the burning."
Then, as the hours went on, the bodies were cut down, and stuck intoshort and shallow graves, dug out with difficulty between the rocks--insome instances, the ground not covering them entirely. There someremained without further attention; but, in the case of others, whoserelatives were still true to them, there came loving hands by night, andbore the remains away to find a secret sepulcher, where none couldmolest them.
But the gallows remained on the Hill, where it could be seen from agreat distance; causing a thrill of wonder in the bosom of the wanderingsavage, as of the wandering sailor, gazing at its skeleton outlineagainst the sunset sky from far out at sea--waiting for ten morevictims!