Hathorne. Marshal, take Giles Corey into custody and chain him.
[Marshal and Constables advance. Tableau—Curtain falls.
Act IV.
The living-room in Giles Corey's house. Nancy Fox and the child Phœbe Morse sit beside the hearth; each has her apron over her face, weeping.
Phœbe (sobbing). I—want my Aunt—Corey and—my Uncle Corey. Why don't they come? Oh, deary me!
[Phœbe jumps up and runs to the window.
Nancy. See you anybody coming?
Phœbe. There is a dame in a black hood coming past the popple-trees. Oh, Nancy, come quick; see if it be Aunt Corey!
Nancy. Where be my spectacles—where be they? (Runs about the room searching.) Oh Lord, what's the use of living to be so old that you're scattered all over the house like a seed thistle! Having to hunt everywhere for your eyes and your wits whenever you want to use 'em, and having other folks a-meddling with 'em! Where be the spectacles? They be not in the cupboard; they be not on the dresser. Where be they? I trow this be witch-work. I know well enough what has become of my good horn spectacles. Goody Bishop hath witched them away, thinking they would suit well with her fine hood. I know well that I—
Phœbe (sobbing aloud). Oh, Nancy, it is not Aunt Corey. It is only Goodwife Nourse.