CHAPTER XI.
Examination of Rebecca Nurse.
When they arrived at the village, the examination was in progress.
Mistress Rebecca Nurse, the mother of a large family; aged, venerable, and bending now a little under the weight of years, was standing as a culprit before the magistrates, who doubtless had often met her in the social gatherings of the neighborhood.
She was guarded by two constables, she who needed no guarding.

Around, and as near her as they were allowed to stand, stood her husband and her grown-up sons and daughters.
One of the strangest features of the time, as it strikes the reader of this day, was the peaceful submission to the lawful authorities practised by the husbands and fathers, and grown-up sons and brothers of the women accused.

Reaching as the list of alleged witches did in a short time, to between one hundred and fifty and two hundred persons--nearly the whole of them members of the most respectable families--it is wonderful that a determined stand in their behalf was not the result.

One hundred resolute men, resolved to sacrifice their lives if need be, would have put a stop to the whole matter.

And if there had been even twenty men in Salem, like Joseph Putnam, the thing no doubt would have been done.
And in the opinion of the present writer, such a course would have been far more worthy of praise, than the slavish submission to such outrages as were perpetrated under the names of law, justice and religion.