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suspicion of the trustworthiness of the evidence had been engendered.

The other cause was the retraction of the confessions. In all fifty-five confessed. Some of them retracted, though they knew it would be certain death. Such was the case of Samuel Wardwell, who was executed protesting his innocence. Margaret Jacobs, who had testified against her grandfather in her confession, was so overwhelmed with grief and shame when she came to herself that she took it back, and addressed the court, saying:

They told me if I would not confess I should be put down into the dungeon, and would be hanged; but if I would confess I should have my life; the which did so affright me with my own vile, wicked heart, to save my life, made me make the like confession, I did, which confession, may it please the honored Court, is altogether false and untrue. The very first night after I had made confession I was in such horror of conscience that I could not sleep for fear the Devil should carry me away for telling such horrid lies.

The entire confession is one of the most touching compositions in literature. She was afterward tried and condemned to death, but escaped because her case was not disposed of until after the reaction.

Six of the women of Andover who had confessed signed a declaration retracting, and fifty of the inhabitants of that town testified to their good character. They say that their nearest and dearest relations told them that there was no hope of saving their lives but by confessing themselves to be witches; that the confession which they made was suggested by some gentlemen,

they telling us that we were witches and they knew it, and we knew it, which made us think that it was so; and our understanding, our reason, our faculties almost gone, we were not capable of judging of our condition.... And most of what we