Here he built her a hut and brought her food
and kept her safe until all danger was passed.
One or two other men escaped with their wives and fled beyond the
borders of the colony. Twenty, however, were put to death by hanging,
among them a minister. All these twenty to the last declared their
innocence. Many others, strange to say, confessed to being witches.
They confessed because they were terrified into it. Many confessed
because they saw that by so doing they might save their lives. But
some, having confessed, were so distressed at having lied that they
took back their confession. Then they were hanged without mercy.
For a year this terrible madness lasted. Then it passed as suddenly
as it had come. The people awoke again to their right senses. The
prison doors were opened and the poor innocent people were set
free. The wicked children who had accused them were never punished
unless their own hearts punished them. One of them at least repented
bitterly, and years later openly acknowledged her sorrow for her
share in the sad business.
The minister in whose house the persecution began was punished. For
the people were so angry with him and the part he had taken that
they would have no more to do with him, and he was obliged to leave
Salem village.
Some others who had taken as great a part as he in hounding guiltless
people to death remained impenitent and unpunished.
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