“But I’m not the only one who saw them,” said Purity.

“So the deposition is wrong?”

“I never said in the deposition that I was the only one who saw them.”

“Excellent! Who else was there at this witches’ sabbath?”

“What witches’ sabbath?” Purity was confused now.

“Did you say you stumbled upon this coven of witches as they frolicked naked on the banks of the river?”

“Two of them were bathing, but I saw no sign of anything more dire than that.”

“So to you, when witches cavort naked before your eyes, it is innocent bathing?”

“No, I just... I never thought of it as a... it wasn’t a worship of any kind.”

“But the tossing of the child toward heaven—a Black child, no less—and the way the naked man laughed at you, unashamed of his nakedness ...”

Purity was sure she had neither spoken of nor written down any such description. “How could you know of that?”

“So you admit that you did not include this vital evidence in your deposition?”

“I didn’t know it was evidence.”

“Everything is evidence,” said Quill. “Beings who frolic naked, laugh at Christians, and then disappear without a trace—which part of this experience would not be evidence? You must leave nothing out.”

“I see that now,” said Purity. “I reckon I didn’t know what a witches’ sabbath might look like, so I didn’t know when I saw it.”

“But if you didn’t know, why would you denounce them?” asked Quill. “You haven’t brought a false accusation, have you?”

“No, sir! Every word I said was true.”

“Oh, and what about the words you did not say?”

Purity was even more confused. “But if I didn’t say them, how can I know which words they are?”

“But you know them. We just discovered them. The fact that it was a pagan bacchanal, with a naked man molesting a naked boy before your eyes—”

“Molest! He only tossed him in the air as a father might toss his own child, or an older brother might toss a younger.”

“So you think this might be incest as well?” asked Quill.

“All I ever thought was to report what they said of themselves, that Alvin Smith is the seventh son of a seventh son, with all the knacks that such men are prone to have.”

“So you believe the words of the devil concerning this?” asked Quill.

“The words of what devil?”

“The devil who spoke to you and told you that knacks just happen to come to seventh sons of seventh sons, when in fact witchcraft can only be practiced by those who have given themselves over to the service of Satan.”

“I didn’t understand that,” said Purity. “I thought it was the use of hidden powers that was the crime, all by itself.”

“Evil is never all by itself,” said Quill. “Remember that when you testify you will take an oath with your hand on the sacred scripture, the very word of God under your hand, which is the same as holding Christ by the hand, for he is the very Word. You will give oath to tell the truth, the whole truth. So you must not attempt to withhold any more information as you have been doing.”