Today in Salem: After several weeks away, Governor Phips had returned two days ago astonished to find that his wife has been named as a witch. She has always been a kind and merciful woman, but now she has gone too far, and it’s counting against her. While the Governor was gone, and without any authority, she’d signed a warrant to release a specific woman from prison. Now the woman has disappeared, and the jailer must be fired. Her accusers say it’s obvious: His wife must be a witch, in league with one that she’s set free. What else could explain it?
Privately, the Governor can only hope that his wife hasn’t mentioned the horoscope. Many years ago an astrologer had given it to him unasked for. Then last winter the Governor’s wife had found it and destroyed it, thinking that its predictions were a little too accurate. Would owning a horoscope reflect badly on either of them? Does it matter that he didn’t ask for it? Or that she’d destroyed it as soon as she found it?
Meanwhile, a notable man has brought his sick child all the way from Boston to ask the afflicted girls if a specter is causing the illness. For the first time, though, when the girls formally accuse a specific woman, the judges refuse to arrest her. Then, when the prominent minister Increase Mather hears about it, he confronts the child’s father. Why didn’t he seek help from God in Boston rather than the Devil in Salem?