Chapter 55

The following new characters are introduced in the next two chapters:

Savannah Collins

Shannon's twin, James's Wife, 5'-2" tall, 105 pounds, 34C-22-34, 17 years old, blond hair, gray eyes, very cute

Shannon Collins

Savannah's twin, James's Wife, 5'-2" tall, 105 pounds, 34C-22-34, 17 years old, blond hair, gray eyes, very cute

James's Narrative of his trip to Boston:

I went north with Gwyn, Glanda, and their soon-to-be lawyer Husband plus a number of other Representatives to discuss the New England colonies joining our new, larger North American Confederation. All of the colonies south of New York had already joined, even New Jersey. The British had quickly removed their forces from all of the southern colonies, but were hesitant to remove them from New England and also from Canada.

Much to the disgust of those from New York, the negotiations were being held in Boston, where the War for Independence had started over twenty-five years ago.

We had transferred to Philadelphia from O'Connell House and sailed up the east coast with Captain Graham and Rattlesnake. We reached Boston in good shape and a day ahead of the remainder of the Commission members even though we had left well after they had. Rattlesnake and Captain Graham received quite a welcome when we arrived in Boston harbor. We were hardly noticed when we departed the ship following the welcoming ceremonies at the dock. Having read all of Great Grandfather Mark's books, we had a fairly good idea of how Boston was laid out in this time and Reality. We were therefore able to secure excellent hotel accommodations before the other Commissioners or most of the delegates arrived. The meetings started several days after the arrival of the last of the delegates from the various New England colonies and from Canada.

The arguments stared on the first day and continued at each meeting thereafter. The New Englanders in their conceit seemed to have the mistaken impression that we were joining them rather than it being the other way around. The four of us quickly proved to them that we were the ones in charge, and that they could join us under our terms, or they could hang by themselves.

It was made very clear to them that there would be no extension of their boundaries into the west, and that they had no valid land claims there. Those lands were ours and had been paid for with our peoples' lives and blood, and we would not allow them to encroach upon them.

It finally required us to transport their leaders to Fort Niagara, which I had personally scouted in February and had then also isolated when we had launched our offensive. After emptying it of people, we destroyed the fort totally to convince the delegates that we were serious. Some of the other Commission members from our Confederation thought that was overdoing it a bit, but there had been too many raids into the upper Ohio country from those at Fort Niagara for it to be allowed to remain a threat.

We also made it very clear to the Canadians, especially the French, that they would join us, and that they could not be ruled by those in Paris, though they could continue to trade with them if they wished. Many of them were delighted to be out from under the thumb of the British, though not all of them. A considerable number of them were not excited about joining the North American Confederation.

It was also pointed out to them, that if they went on their own that either Britain or France would try to take them over again. The English delegates didn't want the French to reacquire Canada again, and the French delegates didn't want the British to reassert control of Canada. They eventually accepted our Confederation as the least of the three evils.

We had been in Boston for three weeks, when I heard a rumor about a witch trial being conducted in Salem. The next day there was a notice in the local newspaper. I quickly went to see Gwyn and Glanda.

"Have you seen this?" I asked them on reaching their rooms in the hotel. They had their wards in the walls, floor and ceiling, of course, but I had easily passed through them since they were standard O'Connell wards.

"Yes, we saw it this morning," Gwyn answered, showing me their copy of the paper.

"Obviously, you have something in mind, or you wouldn't be here," Glanda said observing my stance and the look on my face.

"I don't intend to let some poor soul be abused and probably killed by those religious fanatics," I told them.

"Yes, those asses who tried to shoot your Sister, Jillian, were from Massachusetts weren't they?" Gwyn asked.

"Yes, they were," I told her, remembering how upset Jillian had been.

"Will you be gone long?" Glanda asked, assuming that I intended to do something about this.

"I've already talked to some people. Salem is some twelve miles or so up the coast from Boston. I'm going to rent a horse and go up there. If I find a bunch of fanatics abusing people, I'll deal with them. With the limited use of Magic here, I don't imagine that anyone could have done anything serious. We certainly haven't found anything like that so far," I reminded them.

"No, we haven't. All we have found is some with the Talent, but with no real knowledge of how to use it or how to control Magic. We and the 'Book of Dreams' have had to teach them everything that their level of Talent would allow them to learn," Gwyn pointed out.

"S & S are still teaching Magic and probably will be until they die. The rest of us also. There just aren't any schools for that here, although that might be something to start, but certainly not up here in this unfriendly territory," Glanda agreed but had a thoughtful look on her face.

I easily procured a horse and set out for Salem at just after eight that morning. I needed to do a line-of-sight transfer across some open water initially to reach the road going to Salem. With a ride of just over three hours, I reached the outskirts of Salem a bit after eleven that morning.

I realized that things like this shouldn't be happening, but there was presently a lack of a strong government in most of the New England colonies. While the British were still here, they had lost interest in trying to control the people, and strong leaders weren't yet in place to take control and form new governments. Many of those who had formerly been in government here had been purged by the British after they defeated Washington at Fredricksburg. Others had fled to avoid being hanged or imprisoned. The British had not encouraged citizens to participate in governing the colonies after the war.

Salem Town, located at the mouth of the Naumkeag River, was first settled in 1626 by a group of fishermen led by Roger Conant.

The Puritan migration to New England, of which the Massachusetts Bay colony was the largest and most important economically, had accelerated in the 1620s and 1630s due to repression by the Anglican church in England. Self-government came naturally to them, as they desired to build a society based on their religious beliefs. The Puritans had come to Massachusetts to obtain religious freedom for themselves, but had no particular interest in establishing a haven for other faiths. Their laws were harsh and strictly enforced, with punishments that included fines, seizure of property, banishment or imprisonment.

In Salem, life was governed by the precepts of the Church, which was Calvinist in the extreme. The only schooling for children was in religious doctrine and the Bible, and all villagers were expected to go to the meeting house for three-hour sermons every Wednesday and Sunday. Some common superstitions became associated with the Devil, and witchcraft persecutions became common. Men and women in Salem came to believe that all misfortunes were attributed to the work of the Devil. Witchcraft was then known as the Devil's Magic and many were executed who were believed to have practiced it.

In a village where everyone believed that the Devil was real, close at hand, and active in the real world, it was easy for them to accept that those accused of being Witches were responsible for their problems, and it became an obsession.

I was disappointed on arriving in Salem. It wasn't the prosperous and thriving town that it had been in our Reality. With British control of trade, the flourishing trade with the rest of the world which the town was famous for in our Reality had not developed. The British had also retaliated against the town and those in it since Salem had been a center of privateering during the War. Their ships had been responsible for capturing or destroying some six hundred British ships. The area was presently dependent on fishing and agriculture for its support.

While my clothes and fine horse marked me as a stranger, I was not alone as there were a number of visitors here from other locations in the colony. Consequently, it was easy to learn where and when the proceedings of the day were taking place. In fact, it appeared that I had arrived just in time. The trial was over already, having been completed yesterday, and the witches had been sentenced to death. The sentence was to be carried out today at noon. They were to be burned at the stake. This alarmed me greatly, as I had detected two strong Talents on approaching the town, and they had been in great distress.

While I had planned to intervene on behalf of those accused of witchcraft, this put an entirely new face on just what that intervention would be, and how strong a response would be required. In preparation for what might be required, I sought a stand of trees well outside of the town in which to leave my horse and cast a ward around the area to protect him. I then returned to the town on foot and followed a number of others heading for the site of the proposed punishment.

As I neared the area, I could feel the Talents of those there and could tell that they had little conscious use of Magic although they had HUGE but untrained Talents. This had become the accepted standard to us O'Connells in this Reality. I was determined to protect them and remove them from their present danger.

On arriving at the town square, I saw two men standing in front of the crowd on a raised platform. One was addressing the crowd and whipping them up into a mob.

"Who is that?" I asked the person next to me, who also appeared to be a visitor.

"He is the famous British Witch Hunter Matthew Hopkins, the third," the fellow told me. "The younger man is William Stoughton, the third, the ex-governor of Massachusetts and a firebrand in theses things. His Great Grandfather was one of the judges at the original Witch trials in Salem Village, and was the one who 'cleared the land' of Witches as he told it," he added quietly.

"And the two young women tied to the stakes?" I inquired. I had been shocked at how young the accused witches were. They were hardly older than I was and very cute.

"They are the convicted Witches, the Collins Sisters," he whispered.

Several of those around us were looking at us with scowls, so we stopped talking and listened to Matthew Hopkins exhort the crowd into a frenzy for a short time.

He was followed by the younger Stoughton, who repeated the charges against the Sisters to the crowd and then the jury's findings. I had never heard such a litany of crap in my entire life. There was no real evidence against the girls. The entire case was based on superstition and unproven accusations by people who hadn't really seen or heard anything. From this, it was obvious to me that there was an ulterior motive behind all of this somewhere.

As noon approached, the Sisters became more frantic and desperate, as more wood was piled up around them and the stakes. By then the two speakers had fallen silent, and a man brought out two lit torches and handed them to the speakers who left the platform they had been on and turned toward the Sisters who were beyond frantic by now.

I was unwilling to allow this farce to go any further and cast the transfer spell for a line-of-sight transfer to the middle of the street about five feet in front of the Sisters tied to the stakes. I startled the crowd with my sudden appearance.

"Just what do you think you are going to do?" I demanded in a loud voice in my best colonial old English.

"Who are you, and what do you think you are doing?" Hopkins demanded in an angry voice.

"I am James O'Connell of Clan O'Connell, and I am here to stop you," I told them.

"They have been convicted of witchcraft and are to be burned at the stake," Stoughton shouted indignantly.

"I don't believe that you have any idea what a real Witch or Wizard could do. None of you have ever seen a real Witch or Wizard. Those that you have convicted in the past were nothing more than poor misfits and emotionally unstable people who you tortured until they confessed to things that they couldn't possibly have done, as they had no Magic," I told them in an amplified voice. I had cast the spell to make my voice louder so that all of those in the crowd could hear me. A number of those in the front row had turned surly already.

"What do you know of witchcraft -- the Devil's Magic?" Hopkins demanded in a loud voice that rose to a frenzy as the pair stepped closer.

"Out fire," I said, and their torches went out as I added Magic to the small spell that I had cast. The pair stared first at the now dead torches in their hands and then at me in amazement.

"WIZARD!!" Hopkins shouted in shocked surprise in a loud voice.

"Yes! I am a real Wizard and not some poor fool that you can intimidate. You have never met a real Witch or Wizard, or you wouldn't be here now," I told the two of them.

"Devil!" Stoughton screamed and raced toward me with the extinguished torch raised like a weapon. I froze him in place in mid-stride.

"Kill the Devil!" Hopkins screamed, exhorting the crowd while pulling a flintlock pistol from his clothes. Before he could fire the pistol, I spoke the trigger word that brought my wards up around the Sisters and me. The pistol ball had no effect on the wards and flattened out to fall to the ground. The crowd in the meantime had started forward.

"YOU ALL LIKE FIRE SO MUCH," I roared with my amplified voice, "HAVE SOME OF IT," and I cast the spell for Magic Fire. It appeared around the outside of my wards to leap and dance in the strong wind that had come up in the last few minutes. Hopkins was continuing to exhort the crowd to continue the attack despite the presence of Magic Fire, which had seriously burned a number of people already. This aggravated me no end.

"HERE IS SOME FIRE FOR YOU," I shouted at him as I raised my arm, aimed at Hopkins, and thought 'fire', before triggering my Power Ring. Magic Fire leapt from my fingers and passed through the crowd without touching anyone else to set Matthew Hopkins, the third, on fire like a human torch. The fire consumed him entirely in little more than a minute, and there was nothing left but some ash being blown away on the still strong wind. The stunned crowd just stared at the spot where he had been for a short time before panic overtook them, and they ran off screaming in panic and fear. The hold that he had on them had been broken by his death.

I canceled the Magic Fire but left the wards in place before turning to the two young women still tied to the stakes. I brushed the firewood around them aside with a swipe of my Power Rings. They too were staring at me in fright.

"Are you the Devil?" the one asked in fright, as I approached.

"He must be with the things that he has done," the second said, just as frightened as her Sister as I neared them.

"No, I'm not the Devil, but I am a Sorcerer and use Magic. The two of you also have the ability to use Magic. You just don't know any -- yet," I told them with a smile, as I moved behind the stake and cut the ropes that held them.

"But only the Devil or his chosen can do Magic ... can do things like you did," the first continued.

"We refuse to sign your book," the second one said in a frightened voice.