What! is it not enough? Would you hear more?
Giles Corey!
COREY.
I am here.
HATHORNE.
Come forward, then.
COREY ascends the platform.
Is it not true, that on a certain night
You were impeded strangely in your prayers?
That something hindered you? and that you left
This woman here, your wife, kneeling alone
Upon the hearth?
COREY.
Yes; I cannot deny it.
HATHORNE.
Did you not say the Devil hindered you?
COREY.
I think I said some words to that effect.
HATHORNE.
Is it not true, that fourteen head of cattle,
To you belonging, broke from their enclosure
And leaped into the river, and were drowned?
COREY.
It is most true.
HATHORNE.
And did you not then say
That they were overlooked?
COREY.
So much I said.
I see; they're drawing round me closer, closer,
A net I cannot break, cannot escape from! (Aside).
HATHORNE.
Who did these things?
COREY.
I do not know who did them.
HATHORNE.
Then I will tell you. It is some one near you;
You see her now; this woman, your own wife.
COREY.
I call the heavens to witness, it is false!
She never harmed me, never hindered me
In anything but what I should not do.
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