At the question, the lady, unable longer to control herself, burst into tears. Quickly recovering herself, however, and drying her eyes, she said:
"The wicked man who first insulted me with the name and the infamy connected therewith is dead. Dread ye not a like judgment on yourselves?"
"Thou dost ill to remind us," observed an Assistant, "that thou art, according to thine own opinion, in some sort, a cause of the death of our brother, Spikeman, and to threaten us with his fate."
"I threatened not. I did but repel a wrongful accusation," said the lady, more humbly.
"Yet dost thou not deny the name?" persisted Endicott.
"If it availed, I would deny it; but I see that ye are all leagued together to persecute me unto the death. Not my will," she sighed, folding her hands and looking up, "but Thine be done!"
"Wilt thou say nothing more touching this subject?" inquired Endicott.
"I desire to say nothing thereupon, except to protest against the injurious constructions you seem determined to put on all that I can say."
"How hath it happened," continued Endicott, "that you have never appeared with the congregation, in the Lord's house?"
"Consider the distance we did live in the woods, and the difficulty of the travel," answered the lady, deprecatingly. "But, has not Sir Christopher attended?"