Dulcibel: A Tale of Old Salem

  CHAPTER LIV.

  Some Concluding Remarks.

  Perhaps before I conclude I should state that the keeper of the BostonBridewell, Master Arnold, was summarily dismissed for accepting thevalidity of the Governor's signature. But he did not take it verygrievously to heart for Master Raymond, Captain Alden and others whom hehad obliged saw him largely recompensed. Captain Alden, by the way, hadfled for concealment to his relatives in Duxbury. Being asked when heappeared there, "Where he came from?" the old captain said "he wasfleeing from the devil--who was still after him." However his relativesmanaged to keep him safely, until all danger was passed, both from thedevil and from his imps.

  As for Lady Mary, the indignation of "the faithful" was hot againsther--and finally against Sir William, who could not be made to see in itanything but a very good joke. "You know that Lady Mary will have herown way," he said to Master Mather.

  "Wives should be kept in due gospel subjection!" returned the minister.

  "Oh, yes, rejoined the Governor smiling; but I wish you had a wife likeLady Mary, and would try it on her! I think we should hear somethingbreaking."

  But when Mistress Ann Putnam and others began "to cry out" against LadyMary as a witch, the Governor waxed angry in his turn.

  "It is time to put a stop to all this," he said indignantly. "They willdenounce me as a witch next." So he issued a general pardon and jaildelivery--alike to the ten persons who were then under sentence ofdeath, to those who had escaped from prison, and to the one hundred andfifty lying in different jails, and the two hundred others who had beendenounced for prosecution.

  It was a fair blow, delivered at the very front and forehead of thecruel persecution and it did its good work, though it lost Sir Williamhis position--sending him back to England to answer the charges of hisenemies, and to die there soon afterwards in his forty-fifth year.

  When Chief-Justice Stoughton, engaged in fresh trials against thereputed witches, read the Governor's proclamation of Pardon, he was soindignant that he left his seat on the bench, and could not be prevailedupon to return to it.

  Neither could he, to the day of his death, be brought to see that he haddone anything else than what was right in the whole matter.

  Not so the jury--which, several years after, confessed its greatmistake, and publicly asked forgiveness. Nor Judge Sewall, who roseopenly in church, and confessed his fault, and afterward kept one of thedays of execution, with every returning year, sacred to repentance andprayer--seeing no person from sunrise to nightfall, mourning in theprivacy of his own room the sin he had committed.

  Mistress Ann Putnam and her husband both died within the seven years, asDulcibel in her moment of spiritual exaltation had predicted. Herdaughter Ann lived to make a public confession, asking pardon of thosewhom she had (she said unintentionally) injured, and died at the age ofthirty-five--her grave being one that nobody wanted their loved ones tolie next to.

  As for the majority of the "afflicted circle," they fell as the yearswent on into various evil ways--one authority describing them as"abandoned to open and shameless vice."

  Master Philip English, after the issue of the Governor's pardon,returned to Salem. Seventeen years afterwards, he was still trying torecover his property from the officials of the Province. Of L1500seized, he never recovered more than L300; while his wife died in twoyears, at the age of forty-two, in consequence of the treatment to whichshe had been subjected.

  Master Joseph Putnam and his fair Elizabeth lived on in peace at the oldplace; taking into his service the Quaker Antipas upon his release fromprison. The latter was always quiet and peaceful, save when any allusionwas made to the witches. But he had easy service and good treatment; andwas a great favorite with the children, especially with that image ofhis father, who afterwards became distinguished as the Major GeneralPutnam of Revolutionary fame.

  As for the presents that had been promised to the "afflicted circle,"they came to them duly, and from London too. And they were rich giftsalso; but such a collection of odd and grotesque articles, certainly arenot often got together. Master Raymond had commissioned an eccentricfriend of his in London to purchase them, and send them on; acquaintinghim with the peculiar circumstances. There were yellow birds, and reddragons, and other fantastic animals, birds and beasts. But they camefrom London and the "circle" found them just suited to their peculiartastes; and they always maintained, even in defiance of Mistress Ann,that Master Raymond was a lovely gentleman and an "afflicted" personhimself. It will thus be seen that these Salem maidens were in their daytruly esthetic--having that sympathetic fondness for unlovely andrepulsive things, which is the unerring indication of a daughter ofLilith.

  * * * * *

  And now, in conclusion, some one may ask, "Did the Province ofMassachusetts ever make any suitable atonement for the great wrongs herCourts of Injustice had committed?" I answer Never! Massachusetts hasnever made any, adequate atonement--no, not to this day!

  The General Assembly, eighteen years afterwards, did indeed pass an actreversing the convictions and attainders in all but six of the cases;and ordering the distribution of the paltry sum of L578 among the heirsof twenty-four persons, as a kind of compensation to the families ofthose who had suffered; but this was all--nothing, or next to nothing!

  Perhaps the day will some time come, when the cry of innocent blood fromthe rocky platform of Witch Hill, shall swell into sufficient volume tobe heard across the chasm of two centuries. Then, on some high pedestal,where the world can see it, Massachusetts shall proclaim in enduringmarble her penitence and ask a late forgiveness of the twenty innocentmen and women whom she so terribly wronged. And as all around, and eventhe mariner far out at sea, shall behold the gleaming shaft, standingwhere stood the rude gallows of two centuries ago, they shall say withsoftening eyes and glowing cheeks: "It is never too late to right agreat wrong; and Massachusetts now makes all the expiation that ispossible to those whom her deluded forefathers dishonored and persecutedand slew!"