of authority at the same time, and openly charged the abovesaid Good and Osburn as the persons that afflicted her, the aforesaid Indian.”

By comparing these depositions with the other documents I have presented, it will be seen how admirably the whole affair was arranged, so far as concerned the part played by Tituba.  She commences her testimony by declaring her innocence.  The afflicted children are instantly thrown into torments, which, however, subside as soon as she begins to confess.  Immediately after commencing her confession, and as she proceeds in it, she herself becomes tormented “in the face of authority,” before the eyes of the magistrates and the awestruck crowd.  Her power to afflict ceases as she breaks loose from her compact with the Devil, who sends some unseen confederate, not then brought to light, to wreak his vengeance upon her for having confessed.  Tituba, as well as the girls, showed herself an adept in the arts taught in the circle.

All we know of Sarah Osburn beyond this date are the following items in the Boston jailer’s bill “against the country,” dated May 29, 1692:  “To chains for Sarah Good and Sarah Osburn, 14 shillings:”  “To the keeping of Sarah Osburn, from the 7th of March to the 10th of May, when she died, being nine weeks and two days, L1. 3_s._ 5_d._”

The only further information we have of Tituba is from Calef, who says, “The account she since gives of it is, that her master did beat her, and otherwise abuse her, to make her confess and accuse (such as he called) her sister-witches; and that whatsoever she said by way of confessing or accusing others was the effect of such usage:  her master refused to pay her fees, unless she would stand to what she had said.  Calef further states that she laid in jail until finally “sold for her fees.”  The jailer’s charge for her “diet in prison for a year and a month” appears in a shape that corroborates Calef’s statements, which were prepared for publication in 1697, and printed in London in 1700.  Although zealously devoted to the work of exposing the enormities connected with the witchcraft prosecutions, there is no ground to dispute the veracity of Calef as to matters of fact.  What he says of the declarations of Tituba, subsequent to her examination, is quite consistent with a critical analysis of the details of the record of that examination.  It can hardly be doubted, whatever the amount of severity employed to make her act the part assigned her, that she was used as an instrument to give effect to the delusion.

Now let us consider the state of things that had been brought about in the village, and in the surrounding country, at the close of the first week in March, 1692.  The terrible sufferings of the girls in Mr. Parris’s family and of their associates, for the two preceding months, had become known far and wide.  A universal sympathy was awakened in their behalf; and a sentiment of horror sunk deep into all hearts, at the dread demonstration of the diabolical