Read Witch Hunt for Free Online Page B

“Come on, then.”
    William stepped forward. “On what charge do you arrest my wife?”
    “The charge of witchcraft.”
    William lunged for the constable.
    “No!” Margaret shouted. “Don’t be a fool, man.”
    “Mother!” Phip ran toward her, but William quickly stepped in front of him and swept him up into his arms.
    Phip reached for Margaret, while Catch growled at the constable.
    Bridget burst into tears.
    Priscilla stamped her foot. “Let her go, you bad man!”
    The constable bound Margaret’s hands with leather straps and shoved her up into the back of the wagon.
    “Don’t leave us, Mother.” Phip struggled in William’s arms.
    Catch barked and charged the wagon. The constable scrambled for the wagon seat, but Catch managed to nip his leg. The constable grabbed a length of rope from the seat next to him and lashed out at the dog with it.
    “You devil dog! You vile witch animal!”
    The whipping made Catch more riled.
    Margaret realized what was going to happen and yelled to the girls, “Get Catch!”
    Bridget raced to the animal, quickly restrained him, and started to lead him away.
    “No you don’t, little girl. Bring that devil dog here.”
    Trembling, Bridget looked at her mother.
    Margaret feared for her children, so she nodded.
    Reluctantly, Bridget returned Catch to the constable. He made a noose in the end of a rope and slipped it over the dog’s head. Catch growled again, but when the constable pulled the noose tight, it made him yelp. The constable laughed, looking around for the nearest sturdy tree limb. He found it on a nearby maple. He dragged the yelping dog to the tree, threw the rope over the limb, and pulled on it, lifting the dog off the ground.
    Phip shrieked and tried to wiggle from William’s grasp.
    Priscilla ran toward Catch.
    Horror filled Margaret. “Stop her, Bridget!”
    Bridget reached for Priscilla, but she was only able to hold onto her for a few moments before she broke free.
    The dog, hanging three feet above the ground by its neck, made desperate gurgling sounds and thrashed about in the air.
    The constable snickered. “We hang witch dogs just like we hang witch bitches.” He turned and gave Margaret a look of triumph. “It just takes a little longer to get the likes of you to the noose, that’s all.”
    Too late, Margaret saw Priscilla descend on the constable. “No, Prissy!”
    Priscilla kicked the constable with all her might.
    He grunted. “Ah, so you’re one, too, huh?” With his free hand, he reached out and grabbed her; with his other hand, he yanked down hard on the rope and broke the dog’s neck, then let the rope go slack. Catch fell to the earth in a lifeless heap. The constable threw Priscilla to the ground and bound her kicking feet as well as her hands, then tossed her as if she were a sack of flour into the back of the wagon alongside Margaret.
    When the wagon moved, Margaret cried out in anguish. She looked at William, whose cheeks were wet with tears. She saw the pain in his eyes and felt his heart. He had wanted to save Catch. He ached to free Margaret and Prissy. But, he had to consider the safety of Phip and Bridget, too.
    Margaret clung to his love. No matter what the authorities did to them, they could not destroy that.
     

     
    Baby Grace Weston died in her cradle of no apparent cause, as Margaret knew she would. In the witchcraft hysteria that had seized Salem Village, the death was not as easily dismissed as it would have been in another time. Susanna blamed the herbal brew that Margaret prescribed and she had administered. The young girls of the village whose “visions” were the basis for most of the witchcraft arrests, found their imaginations primed by Susanna’s plight. They “called out” on Margaret and she was quickly arrested.
    Margaret and Priscilla were taken to jail in the nearby town of Ipswich, where they were held until they could be examined and officially charged with their crimes.
    The preliminary hearing for