The clergy of the neighborhood held a
day of fasting and prayer in consequence. A maid-servant was afterwards
detected as the cause of the missiles. But this did not in the least
stagger Mr. Bennet, minister of the parish, who merely says: "There was a
_seeming blur_ cast, though not on the whole, yet upon some part of it,
for their servant-girl was at last found throwing some things," and goes
off into a eulogium on the "efficacy of prayer."
In one respect, to which Mr. Upham first gives the importance it
deserves, the Salem trials were distinguished from all others. Though
some of the accused had been terrified into confession, yet not one
persevered in it, but all died protesting their innocence, and with
unshaken constancy, though an acknowledgment of guilt would have saved
the lives of all. This martyr proof of the efficacy of Puritanism in the
character and conscience may be allowed to outweigh a great many sneers
at Puritan fanaticism. It is at least a testimony to the courage and
constancy which a profound religious sentiment had made common among the
people of whom these sufferers were average representatives. The accused
also were not, as was commonly the case, abandoned by their friends. In
all the trials of this kind there is nothing so pathetic as the picture
of Jonathan Cary holding up the weary arms of his wife during her trial,
and wiping away the sweat from her brow and the tears from her face.
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