Thee’s very near and very dear to Mary Elizabeth Dyer; and she—she will be happy—she cannot be otherwise, alive or dead—for all that know her, pity her and love her——
And so do all that know you—
No, no, George, love and pity are not for such as I—such pity I mean, or such love as we need here—need I say, whatever we may pretend, whatever the multitude may suppose, and however ill we may be fitted for inspiring it—I—I—
Her voice faltered, she grew very pale, and caught by the frame of the door—
—There may be love, George, there may be pity, there may be some hope on earth for a beautiful witch ... with golden hair ... with large blue eyes ... and a sweet mouth ... but for a ... for a ... for a freckled witch ... with red hair and a hump on her back—what hope is there, what hope on this side of the grave?
She tried to smile when she said this ... but she could not, and the preacher saw and the jailor saw that her heart was broken.
Before the former could reply, and before the latter could stay her, she was gone.
The rest of the story is soon told. The preacher saw Elizabeth and tried to prevail with her, but he could not. She had all the courage of her sister, and would not live by untruth. And yet she escaped, for she was very ill, and before she recovered, the fearful infatuation was over, the people had waked up, the judges and the preachers of the Lord; and the chief-judge, Sewall had publicly read a recantation for the part he had played in the terrible drama. But she saw her brave sister no more; she saw Burroughs no more—he was put to death on the afternoon of the morrow, behaving with high and steady courage to the last—praying for all and forgiving all, and predicting in a voice like that of one crying in the wilderness, a speedy overthrow to the belief in witchcraft—a prophecy that came to be fulfilled before the season had gone by, and his last words were—“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do!”
Being dead, a messenger of the court was ordered away to apprise Rachel Dyer that on the morrow at the same hour, and at the same place, her life would be required of her.
She was reading the Bible when he appeared, and when he delivered the message, the book fell out of her lap and she sat as if stupified for a minute or more; but she did not speak, and so he withdrew, saying to her as he went away, that he should be with her early in the morning.