Today in Salem: Trials have resumed for the accused witches, who stand with their lives in the balance as they face the judges. Despite the high stakes, the judges are proceeding through the trials more and more quickly. The defendants are beginning to blur together, with similar complaints from neighbors, the same accusations from the afflicted girls, and recognition from the handful of confessed witches.
One, two, three: real-world evil, spectral evil, and a confessed witch’s identification. Once those three types of evidence are presented, the judges are done.
Today’s docket includes two women who are so obviously guilty that the court needs only a morning and an afternoon to prove it.
On Trial: The Shrew Alice Parker
The judges begin with the shrew Alice Parker, who’s been nothing but trouble since the day eight months ago when she fainted dead away in the snow, only to sit up laughing at the men who rescued her. What kind of person is dead, then suddenly is alive and laughing at her rescuers? Then, when witnesses testify that Alice has predicted several deaths, the judges are satisfied that the first of the three types of evidence – real-world evil – is proven.
As for the second kind of evidence, spectral powers, it’s already been declared by the afflicted girls, who for months have never wavered in their accusations. The judges skip right to the third and final kind of evidence, identification by a confessed witch, in this case Mary Warren, who says she’s seen Alice Parker at the Devil’s Sacrament.
Alice’s guilt is without question. It isn’t even lunch time when the judges sentence her to death.
On Trial: The Pious Mary Esty
The pious Mary Esty appears before the judges in the afternoon. She is the sister of the beloved Rebecca Nurse, who was hanged two months ago. Like Rebecca, Mary’s piety doesn’t weigh much in her favor. Still, the judges are surprised when six witnesses don’t show up for the trial. One woman does appear, though. Three years ago she’d confided in Mary about an illness, and immediately felt much worse. That shows the judges that Mary has committed real-world evil, the first kind of evidence.
Next: spectral evil. The same woman claims that Mary’s specter had offered her rotten meat just this summer, while Mary was still in jail. Finally, several confessed witches have already identified her before the trial.
The judges pause for a moment to review two depositions in Mary’s favor, one from each jail keeper in two different prisons. Both say that, even being in chains for four months, Mary has been a well-behaved prisoner.
It’s not enough for the judges, though. She’s found guilty and will be hanged.
