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Her feet ploughed up the earth and stones, and the crowd hooted and jeered. "Come on, Dame Linkon, and take your bath," cried some idle urchins, waiting at the water in anticipation of rare sport. The victim continued to scream in her shrill voice: "It's for that hussy! She bore false witness against me at the court and had me condemned. I will be avenged for this!"
The fellow, feeling complimented at being addressed by the celebrated stranger, went on, "Well do I remember, good sir, when and for whom the stool was constructed." "For whom was it built?" asked Sir Albert. "It was made for Ann Linkon, who had slandered goodwife Stevens as was, but who has, since her husband was drowned at sea, married Hugh Price, the royalist and friend of the governor.
How dare he come here?" "For shame!" whispered Sarah Drummond. "Yea, verily." "I wonder he could witness the wrong she hath done." At this a young wife with a babe in her arms interposed: "They do say that John Stevens had naught to do with the matter and did protest against having one so old as Ann Linkon ducked." "John Stevens is a godly man," remarked still another.
For twelve years she had been a widow, and now that she was wealthy and the charm of cavalier society, she began to entertain some serious thoughts of doffing her widow's weeds. "It's all because of that cavalier Hugh Price", said Ann Linkon spitefully. "The hateful thing will wed him, because he is rich and the king is restored."
These two links of love made his wife more dear to him. At times she was pleasant; but usually she studied to thwart his will. She was humbled with the cavaliers and hated the Puritans. Ann Linkon, an old woman given to gossiping, incurred the displeasure of Dorothe Stevens, because she gossiped about her extravagance. She had her arrested, condemned and ducked as we have seen.
"I believe you; yet if you had not detained us, this affair would have been over." The urchins and older persons began to cry: "Hold back, Dame Linkon; make them earn their fees." "I will scratch your eyes out!" she hissed, as she was forced down to the bank and made to sit in the chair.
She was drawn all dripping from the pond and elevated high in the air so everybody could see her. A wild yell went up from the crowd, and an impudent urchin cried: "Ann Linkon, how like you your bath?" "I'll scratch your eyes out!" she shrieked, then again began to denounce her prosecutor as she once more descended, repeating, "She's a hussy!"
Wherefore is Dorothe Stevens so great that one must not say ill of her that they be plunged in the pond? Did she but have her deserts, would she be at home and Ann Linkon on the stool? Marry! I trow not!" "Prythee, good dame Woodley, be more chary of your tongue, lest you be brought to judgment," interposed a more cautious sister.
"What gala scene have they prepared for our amusement?" asked Hugh, his dark gray eyes twinkling with merriment. "I trow it is one that you and I need never fear." "The magistrates have adjudged Ann Linkon to be ducked." "Marry! what hath she done?" "Divers offences, all petty, but aggravating in themselves.
The sheriff's assistants gave the rope a sudden pull, and in an instant the choking, strangling creature soared up in the air, gasping for breath with the water running in streams from her garments. She made several efforts to speak, but in vain. Her mouth, nostrils, eyes and ears were full of water, and she could only gasp. Poor Ann Linkon was humiliated and crushed.
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