Summary

In Chapter 36, the trial resumes as soon as Mary regains consciousness. Magistrate Richard Wilder asks Catherine to recount when Mary was cruel toward her. Catherine says that never happened. He then presses her to recount specific times Mary was cruel toward Thomas. Mary wonders if Catherine will make something up, but she says Mary's cruelty was limited to “her pact with the Devil” (361). Mary can see no shame in Catherine's eyes as she leaves, but she senses sadness that the situation has reached this point. The constable sticks to the fact – someone carved a mark in the door frame that matched the mark on the coin. Catherine says she found the forks and coin in Mary's apron, Mary marked a passage about a serpent in her Bible, and Mary wrote a suicide note. He says the note suggests madness, which in turn suggests...