Springfield 1636-1886, History of Town and City, by Mason A. Green ...

SPRINGFIELD, 163^-1886. 107
The effect upon ^Irs. Parsons was pitiable. She was ah-ead}- in a
decline, suffering from consumption. Her every movement was
watched. Disgrace followed close upon her heels, and her wavering
mind invited a subtle suspicion : Was not her own husband really a
witch? The tragedy had begun, — Mrs. Parsons was becoming in-
sane. The suspicion that her husband was in league with the devil
became a mania. She watched him with cat-like tenacity. When he
lay asleep she would search for the little black marks which in those
days the devil was supposed to put upon those making a covenant of
witchcraft. She did not find the devil's sign-manual upon his body,
but he talked wildly in his sleep, and had satanic dreams, which he
narrated upon waking. So time wore on.
The death of Mrs. Parsons's second child, Joshua, took place
March 1, 1651. She was now ready for the worst, and she went
before Magistrate Pynchon and made oath that her husband was a
witch, and was the cause of the death of her infant. Parsons him-
self had been under legal examination some time before.
''Ah, Witch! Ah, Witch !
" cried Goody Stebbins as Constable
Mirrick took Parsons past her door, and she fell down in a lit.
Miles Morgan had been visiting Thomas Miller when the dreaded man
had approached a short time before, and he saw Miller's wife fly into
a passion and cry, '' Get thee gone, Hugh Parsons ! Get thee gone !
If thou wilt not goe, I will goe to ]\r. Pynchon and he shall have
thee away !
" and she too fell prostrate upon the ground. The red
coat of Hugh Parsous was the nightmare of the ^'illage.
The examination before Mr. P3'uchou only added to the conster-
nation of the connnunity. Jonathan Taylor, after listening to Mrs.
Parsons's evidence against her husband, saw in his dreams three
snakes on the floor, and one of them with black and yellow stripes
bit him on the forehead. He then heard a solemn voice cry out,
" Death ! " That voice was like the voice of Hugh Parsons. " Death !
That is a lie ! " shouted Taylor ; " it was never known that such a
snake killed a man." But Taylor was by this time shaking so that he