University of Virginia Library

“SCENE III.

—A Wood.
“Enter Topsfield, Braybrook and Gideon.
“Topsfield.
You do not recollect it, Simon?—
“Why 't is an old story of the neighborhood;
“And more, too—There was a great panther shot,
“Upon this very track we 're now pursuing,
“On the memorable dark day, when the sun's light
“Went out at noon, through all New England's bounds;
“I 've seen old Captain Rankin often point it out,
“Before he fell a cripple.

“Braybrook.
A goodly panther sure, was that,—
“I 've measured its skin in the Town Hall,
“It 's twice as long as I, and double
“In its girth.—Gideon, you do not hear us.

“Gideon.
Look there— [Pointing to a cloud.]

“See yonder blackness in the sky,
“On which mine eye, as by some fascination,
“Now is fixed, and has been, far back in the hunt—
“I 've marked it creeping up, since first we started:
“It grows fastest towards Salem; oh let
“The panther free, and back to Salem.

“Topsfield.
You choose the strangest pausing places!
“For this dry ridge of sand we halt on, was made
“And left here by the wonderful high tide
“Of Lord's day 'Twenty-Three; one Mother Obinson,
“A witch, was drowned here, crossing
“To conference, with other of her tribe
“That gathered at Darion.

“Gideon.
I will go back!
“For see, it makes toward a lone woman's house,
“On which 't will burst in thunder, I fear.

“Topsfield.
The cloud is emptiness, Gideon; you lose
“Your old judgment—there 's not a drop of rain
“In all that blackness.

“Enter Postman, L. H., E. cross to R.
“Gideon.
[Anxiously.]
What news, sir? Are you from Groton?

“Postman.
From Hadley.

“Gideon.
Ah!
“Is he that dreamed of his own murderer struck?
“And is the striker taken for a witch?

“Postman.
She was hung this morning in the open fields.
[Exit Postman, R. H.

“Gideon.
What dreadful times are these we've stumbled on!—
“There must be some mistake in this he tells;
“What woman, of a woman's usual heart,
“Could thus desire to make unhappy all
“Who live within her breath, within the glances
“Of her eye—and, face to face, pass nights
“With sooty fiends, devising devilishness!—
“No, no—I'll not believe it—let 's hurry on,
“The panther will escape while we are talking.

“[Exeunt L. H. E.