they considered but one step removed from the scarlet lady of the mystic Babylon. It was, however, a most solemn season; all servile labour having been suspended, and the elements being hushed to a degree of repose that left not a current of air sufficient to rustle a leaf. The reigning silence was deep and profound, save when broken by the impatient neighings of the famishing horses, and the lowings and bleatings of the flocks and herds, doomed, for the sins of man, to suffer a penance which they could not understand. But these

sounds only served to heighten the effect by increasing the gloomy solemnity, in which earth, and air, and all things living seemed to participate. A conference meeting was appointed for the evening; but the exercises of the day had so far overcome Deacon Goodspeed, as he alleged, that he could not attend. "But I shall be with you in the spirit, my brethren," he exclaimed, as he left the portals of the sanctuary at sunset, whence with solemn tread he wended his way to his own home-to devour a hearty meal as soon as the shades of night drew on (so it was afterwards discovered), -ample provision for which he had taken special care to provide on the preceding day.

But the evil spirits were neither exorcised nor disarmed by the prayers and fastings of the people, and it shortly became necessary to commence, and vigorously prosecute the proposed investigations of the extraordinary facts daily transpiring. The testimony was all committed to writing; but time

and space would both fail us, were we to attempt giving even an epitome of the mass of evidence collected. One good woman, Mrs, Mary Doud, to whom Mr. Whitman was called in her affliction, was bewitched beyond all controversy, for she cursed the good minister to his face-charging him with caring more for the ewe lambs of his flock than any of the rest-and comparing him to the guide-post finger, that points the way without going itself. During some of her agitations, her tongue was drawn up so that she could not use it

-which was a remarkable circumstance: sometimes it was drawn out of her mouth to an enormous length, by invisible hands; whereupon if they let go, it would run on again uttering the most "nefandous blasphemies," as the excellent though scandalized Mr. Whitman reported it. And yet, he said, she was a "virtuous woman." In one of her severest trances, she declared that she heard Mercy Disborough say to Goody Clawson, "Come, and help me afflict Molly Doud." And when she came to, and was asked why she had cursed the minister, she replied, "Mercy Disborough told me to do it."

A young man, not the brightest in the world, who was courting a pretty black-eyed girl near Menunkatuck-landing, to whom he was in fact engaged, on going to see his charmer one evening, was surprised to find that she had gone out unattended in the dusk of the twilight, her parents knew not whither. On returning home, he dropped in

at Goody Clawson's, thinking, perhaps, that Nancy might be there, as she sometimes ran away to chatter with the old woman. But no Nancy was

there; and what was worse, the old woman told him she should never be his. She afterwards gave him a piece of cake, which he believed to be witchcake; for he had no sooner eaten it than he began to doat upon her, ugly and loathsome as she was. Tearing himself away, however, and hastening homeward, what was the horror and amazement with which he was overwhelmed on beholding his betrothed flying through the air on a goat's back!

The testimony concerning the demoniacal practices of Mercy Disborough was very circumstantial and explicit. In addition to the facts heretofore mentioned respecting the afflictions of Mehitable Goodspeed, it appeared that one day when she had been attacked by horrible convulsions, during which she wept, and laughed, and screamed alternately, she was so torn and distressed that her fond brother, the deacon, ran to call in the spiritual aid of his pastor. In hastening to the residence of his faithful assistant labourer in the church, the good minister was tripped up and overthrown by an invisible obstruction. In his fall he struck his head violently upon the earth; and while he lay stunned upon the ground, the alarmed and watchful deacon distinctly saw a fist beating him on the chest. But neither the arm to which the clenched hand belonged, nor the body to which the arm must have been attached, could be seen. When

the good man had partially recovered, he still insisted upon visiting the agonized sister of his flock, despite of his own mishap. On their arrival at the deacon's house, the ladies of the neighbourhood had collected around the antiquated and suffering maiden, she being then in a trance. Presently she sprang upright upon the floor, and commenced spinning round like a top upon her heels, and singing

"Hynx, phynx, the devil winks,

The fat begins to fry;

The devil is dead, and I'm in his bed

La me! how snug I lie."

The good sisters who had gathered around her were astonished at her antics, and horrified at the profane and blasphemous stanza which she was singing; but still she spun round upon her feet, alternately crying, laughing, and screeching, and then commencing the stave anew

"Hynx, phynx, the devil winks,
The fat begins to fry," &c.

until all of a sudden she stopped, raised her finger, and starting back, as in an attitude of affright, she exclaimed-"See! there she goes! 'Tis Mercy Disborough, climbing to Hobomok's altar on Toquet rock !" She attempted to speak further, but at this instant her jaws were closed, and the demons were heard to say-"Let us confound her language, that she may tell no more tales." The

jaws of Miss Goodspeed were thereupon loosed, but her language became altogether unintelligible to the by-standers, and was said by one who had sailed to the Niew Neidtherlandts strongly to resemble that of the Dutch-a people who had lately established themselves just below Hartford, to the great annoyance of the pilgrims of that neighbourhood. Nothing good could come from people who spoke in such a heathenish tongue. But the minister and his devout followers now began to pray with such fervency and unction, that the frightful noises were hushed into a low, murmuring, and plaintive sound, closing with the words "alas! we can do no more !"

But, on that night, the minister was again afflicted. His head being considerably bruised and swollen, he retired to a feverish bed very early; and during the night a horrid vision appeared to him, having a negro's head, large white eyes, the ears of a mule, a large body but very short and bulky, with claws instead of feet. It sat upon his breast so heavily that he could not breathe, exclaiming, as it grinned and laughed hideously-"O sweet revenge !"

Deacon Goodspeed himself had once ventured to the hut of Goody Clawson, to converse with her about the concerns of her soul. But they presently got into a dispute about some passage of Scripture -whereupon they agreed to look it out in the Bible. When Goody Clawson held the book, he could see the letters in good plain print, and she

VOL. I.-D