For shame! cried Burroughs. Why rebuke his levity, when if we are to put faith in what you say, ye are preparing to over-reach the Evil One himself? You must play a sure game, (for it is a game) if you hope to convict him of treachery in a case, where according to what you believe, his character is at stake.
Brother Burroughs!
Brother Willard!
Forbear, I beseech you.
I shall not forbear. If the woman is a witch, how do you hope to surprise her? ... to entrap her? ... to convict her? And if she is not a witch, how can she hope to go free? None but a witch could escape your toils.
Ah Sir.... Sir! O, Mr. Burroughs! cried the poor woman. There you have spoken the truth sir; there you have said just what I wanted to say. I knew it.... I felt it.... I knew that if I was guilty it would be better for me, than to be what you know me to be, and what your dead wife knew me to be, and both of your dead wives, for I knew them both—a broken-hearted poor old woman. God forever bless you Sir! whatever may become of me—however this may end, God forever bless you, Sir!
Be of good faith Sarah. He whom you serve will be nigh to you and deliver you.
Oh Sir—Sir—Do not talk so. They misunderstand you—they are whispering together—it will be the death of me; and hereafter, it may perhaps be a trouble to you. Speak out, I beseech you! Say to them whom it is that you mean, whom it is that I serve, and who it is that will be nigh to me and deliver me.
Who it is, poor heart! why whom should it be but our Father above! our Lord and our God, Sarah? Have thou courage, and be of good cheer, and put all thy trust in him, for he hath power to deliver thee.
I have—I do—I am no longer afraid of death sir. If they put me to death now—I do not wish to live—I am tired and sick of life, and I have been so ever since dear boy and his poor father—I told them how it would be if they went away when the moon was at the full—they were shipwrecked on the shore just underneath the window of my chamber—if they put me to death now, I shall die satisfied, for I shall not go to my grave now, as I thought I should before you came, without a word or a look of pity, nor any thing to make me comfortable.