Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/197

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her life. Oh! I shudder when I contemplate the widespread misery, the sea of blood that lies before us;—when shall it end?"

"But what can be done, Hannah? I, for one, am open to conviction; suggest a better course."

"I would give the accused a fairer trial; I would have them have counsel to defend them—their very ignorance and helplessness demand it. Think of that miserable Sarah Good, a poor, forlorn, friendless, and forsaken creature, deserted by her husband, the subject of universal prejudice, an object of compassion, not of persecution, surely. I have heard there was not a word brought against her in the whole trial that ought or would have sustained the charge in the mind of any impartial person at a less exciting time; (forgive me, brother; I take my account of these trials second hand—of course, I can not be present myself); and still more, think of her child—that little, miserable, half-starved Dorcas; just think of the whole majesty of the law setting itself against the wits of a poor, little, ignorant, vicious, base-*born child, not yet five years old; think,