TITUBA. 
You wrenched it from the hand of Goodwife Corey
When she rushed at you.

HATHORNE. 
             Mark that, reverend sir!

MATHER. 
It is most marvellous, most inexplicable!

TITUBA. (picking up a bit of gray cloth from the floor). 
And here, too, is a bit of her gray dress,
That the sword cut away.

MATHER. 
                      Beholding this,
It were indeed by far more credulous
To be incredulous than to believe. 
None but a Sadducee, who doubts of all
Pertaining to the spiritual world,
Could doubt such manifest and damning proofs!

HATHORNE. 
Are you convinced?

MATHER to MARY. 
           Dear child, be comforted! 
Only by prayer and fasting can you drive
These Unclean Spirits from you.  An old man
Gives you his blessing.  God be with you, Mary!

ACT II

SCENE I. —­ GILES COREY’s farm.  Morning.  Enter COREY, with a horseshoe and a hammer.

COREY. 
The Lord hath prospered me.  The rising sun
Shines on my Hundred Acres and my woods
As if he loved them.  On a morn like this
I can forgive mine enemies, and thank God
For all his goodness unto me and mine. 
My orchard groans with russets and pearmains;
My ripening corn shines golden in the sun;
My barns are crammed with hay, my cattle thrive
The birds sing blithely on the trees around me! 
And blither than the birds my heart within me. 
But Satan still goes up and down the earth;
And to protect this house from his assaults,
And keep the powers of darkness from my door,
This horseshoe will I nail upon the threshold.

Nails down the horseshoe.

There, ye night-hags and witches that torment
The neighborhood, ye shall not enter here!—­
What is the matter in the field?—­John Gloyd! 
The cattle are all running to the woods!—­
John Gloyd!  Where is the man?

Enter JOHN GLOYD. 
                         Look there! 
What ails the cattle?  Are they all bewitched? 
They run like mad.

GLOYD. 
           They have been overlooked.

COREY. 
The Evil Eye is on them sure enough. 
Call all the men.  Be quick.  Go after them!

Exit GLOYD and enter MARTHA.

MARTHA. 
What is amiss?

COREY. 
            The cattle are bewitched. 
They are broken loose and making for the woods.

MARTHA. 
Why will you harbor such delusions, Giles? 
Bewitched?  Well, then it was John Gloyd bewitched them;
I saw him even now take down the bars
And turn them loose!  They’re only frolicsome.

COREY. 
The rascal!

MARTHA. 
           I was standing in the road,
Talking with Goodwife Proctor, and I saw him.

COREY. 
With Proctor’s wife?  And what says Goodwife Proctor?