Hour of the Witch

Mary is kept in the stocks. Three women search her body for a mark of the devil or a witch’s teat. They find nothing. Mary’s mother and Benjamin Hull visit her while she is imprisoned, reviewing the facts of her case and trying to build a defense. Mary speculates that Thomas could have been the target of witchcraft or, since no one else has considered it, why Thomas himself couldn’t be in allegiance with the Devil. Her scrivener refutes this, though Mary cannot understand why Thomas wouldn’t be under consideration any more than she is.

When Mary goes to trial for witchcraft, Catherine testifies first. Thomas is absent. She testifies to her experience finding the various evidence of the Devil, including the tines and the coin, but when she is asked whether Mary has shown signs of possession, she cannot say she’s seen evidence suggesting possession. Catherine does, however, reveal that Mary marked a passage in her Bible about poison—the very passage that Mary read that convinced her to obtain the poison originally. Mary collapses after Catherine’s testimony.