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They had not thought that she was awake, but she had been listening long. 'Cousin Lois may go out and meet Satan by the brook-side if she will, but if thou goest, Faith, I will tell mother ay, and I will tell Pastor Tappau, too. Hold thy stories, Cousin Lois, I am afeard of my very life.
'I like the prayers of our Church better, said Lois, one day to Faith. 'No clergyman in England can pray his own words, and therefore it is that he cannot judge of others so as to fit his prayers to what he esteems to be their case, as Mr. Tappau did this morning. 'I hate Mr. Tappau! said Faith, shortly, a passionate flash of light coming out of her dark, heavy eyes. 'Why so cousin?
There was a look of excitement on all their faces; eagerness and horror were depicted on many, while stern resolution, amounting to determined cruelty, if the occasion arose, was seen on others. In the midst of the prayer, Hester Tappau, the younger girl, fell into convulsions; fit after fit came on, and her screams mingled with the shrieks and cries of the assembled congregation.
I have this very hour seen him afflict two innocent children, as of old he troubled those who were possessed by him in Judea. Hester and Abigail Tappau have been contorted and convulsed by him and his servants into such shapes as I am afeard to think on; and when their father, godly Mr. Tappau, began to exhort and to pray, their howlings were like the wild beasts of the field.
In the first pause, when the child was partially recovered, when the people stood around exhausted and breathless, her father, the Pastor Tappau, lifted his right hand, and adjured her, in the name of the Trinity, to say who tormented her. There was a dead silence; not a creature stirred of all those hundreds.
All present were startled at his wild eyes, his bloodless face. But he was evidently annoyed at the expression of their countenances. 'Why look ye at me in that manner? asked he. And his manner was anxious and agitated. His mother made haste to speak: 'It was but that Prudence said something that thou hast told her that Pastor Tappau defiled his hands by whipping the witch Hota.
Lord, have mercy upon us all! Satan is of a truth let loose. 'They sound like the old stories I used to hear in Barford, said Lois, breathless with affright. Faith seemed less alarmed; but then her dislike to Pastor Tappau was so great, that she could hardly sympathise with any misfortunes that befell him or his family. Towards evening Mr. Nolan came in.
The truth was that, a year or two before, there had been a great struggle in Salem village, a great division in the religious body, and Pastor Tappau had been the leader of the more violent, and, ultimately, the successful party. In consequence of this, the less popular minister, Mr. Nolan, had had to leave the place.
However that might be, two parties were speedily formed, the younger and more ardent being in favour of Mr. Nolan, the elder and more persistent and, at the time, the more numerous clinging to the old grey-headed, dogmatic Mr. Tappau, who had married them, baptized their children, and was to them literally as a 'pillar of the church. So Mr.
Pastor Tappau and certain elders roused her up from a heavy sleep, late on the morning of the following day. All night long she had trembled and cried, till morning had come peering in through the square grating up above. It soothed her, and she fell asleep, to be awakened, as I have said, by Pastor Tappau. 'Arise! said he, scrupling to touch her, from his superstitious idea of her evil powers.
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