Thus because she would not confess to the crime of which she had been proven guilty in the eyes of the law, she was sentenced to be hanged within five days, on Saturday, not later than the tenth nor earlier than the eighth hour. Also, owing to the fact of the confusion and almost ungovernable excitement among the people, it was forbidden any one to visit her, excepting of course the officers of the law, or the ministers to exhort her to confession.
At noon the court adjourned.
First, the judges in their velvet gowns went out of the meeting-house. With the chief justice walked Cotton Mather, conversing learnedly.
Following their departure, two soldiers entered and bade Deliverance rise and go out with them. So, amidst a great silence, she passed down the aisle.
Then the people were allowed to leave. Some of them must needs follow the judges, riding in stately grandeur down the street to the tavern for dinner. But the greater part of them followed the prisoner’s cart to the very door of the jail.
As Deliverance stepped from the cart, she saw a familiar figure near by. It was that of Goodwife Higgins.
“Deliverance, oh, Deliverance,” cried the poor woman, “speak to me, my bairn!”
But Deliverance looked at her with woe-begone eyes, answering never a word.
The goodwife, regardless of the angry warnings of the guard to stand back, pushed her way to her foster-child’s side. Deliverance was as one stricken dumb. Only she raised her face, and the goodwife bent and kissed the little maid’s parched lips.
A soldier wrested them violently apart. “Are ye gone daft, gossip,” he cried harshly, “that ye would buss a witch?”