the earnest and importunate inquiry, on all sides, “Who is it that bewitches you?” opened their lips in response, and they began to select and bring forward their victims.  One after another, they cried out “Good,” “Osburn,” “Tituba.”  On the 29th of February, 1692, warrants were duly issued against those persons.  It is observable, that the complainants who procured the warrants in these cases were Joseph Hutchinson, Edward Putnam, Thomas Putnam, and Thomas Preston.  This fact shows how nearly unanimous, at this time, was the conviction that the sufferings of the girls were the result of witchcraft.  Joseph Hutchinson was a firm-minded man, of strong common sense, and from his general character and ways of thinking and acting, one of the last persons liable to be carried away by a popular enthusiasm, and was found among the earliest rescued from it.  Thomas Preston was a son-in-law of Francis Nurse.

As all was ripe for the development of the plot, extraordinary means were taken to give publicity, notoriety, and effect to the first examinations.  On the 1st of March the two leading magistrates of the neighborhood, men of great note and influence, whose fathers had been among the chief founders of the settlement, and who were Assistants,—­that is, members of the highest legislative and judicial body in the colony, combining with the functions of a senate those of a court of last resort with most comprehensive jurisdiction,—­John Hathorne and Jonathan Corwin, entered the village, in imposing array, escorted by the marshal, constables, and their aids, with all the trappings of their offices; reined up at Nathaniel Ingersoll’s corner, and dismounted at his door.  The whole population of the neighborhood, apprised of the occasion, was gathered on the lawn, or came flocking along the roads.  The crowd was so great that it was necessary to adjourn to the meeting-house, which was filled at once by a multitude excited to the highest pitch of indignation and abhorrence towards the prisoners, and of curiosity to witness the novel and imposing spectacle and proceedings.  The magistrates took seats in front of the pulpit, facing the assembly; a long table or raised platform being placed before them; and it was announced, that they were ready to enter upon the examination.  On bringing in and delivering over the accused parties, the officers who had executed the warrants stated that they “had made diligent search for images and such like, but could find none.”  After prayer, Constable George Locker produced the body of Sarah Good; and Constable Joseph Herrick, the bodies of Sarah Osburn, and Tituba Mr. Parris’s Indian woman.  The evidence seems to indicate, that, on these occasions, the prisoners were placed on the platform, to keep them from the contact of the general crowd, and that all might see them.