CHAPTER VI.
Here the venerable Increase Mather stood up, and after a short speech to the people and a few words to the court, he begged to know if the individual he saw before him was indeed the George Burroughs who had formerly been a servant of God.
Formerly, sir! I am so now, I hope.
The other sat down, with a look of inquietude.
You appear to be much perplexed about me. You appear even to doubt the truth of what I say. Surely ... surely ... there are some here that know me. I know you, Doctor Mather, and you, Sir William Phips, and you ... and you ... and you; addressing himself to many that stood near—it is but the other day that we were associated together; and some of us in the church, and others in the ministry; it is but the other day that—
Here the Judges began to whisper together.
—That you knew me as well as I knew you. Can I be so changed in a few short years? They have been years of sorrow to be sure, of uninterrupted sorrow, of trial and suffering, warfare and wo; but I did not suppose they had so changed me, as to make it over-hard for my very brothers in the church to know me—
It is Burroughs, I do believe, said another of the judges.—But who is that boy with you, and by what authority are you abroad again, or alive, I might say, if you are the George Burroughs that we knew?
By what authority, Judges of Israel! By authority of the Strong Man who broke loose when the spirit of the Lord was upon him! By authority of one that hath plucked me up out of the sea, by the hair of my head, breathed into my nostrils the breath of new life, and endowed me with great power—
The people drew back.