The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin Read Online Free

he had just met have presented nothing more than a mask? The man reveals no more than he has to, Browne thought, but I think there is no
maleficium,
not by this man’s hand. He would have to search the court records.

III

    T HE E XAMINATION AND D EPOSITION OF J ARED H IGGINS,
This Fifteenth Day of June, Anno Domini 1648,
Being Sworn, saith:
    My name is Jared Higgins, planter at Robinson’s Falls since 1640. I have thirty-four years, am married, and previously of Nottinghamshire, England, Parish Gotham; thence of Charleston, Massachusetts Bay in New England.
    Assistant Magistrates:
Now, Goodman Higgins, the events at Dover Market suggest on the face of them negligence on your part. You are aware of the divers actions to be brought against you at the next session of the Court. Would you explain, as you understand them, the terms of your agreement with one Mr. Balthazar Coffin.
    Higgins:
It was all plain, Your Honors. I to receive three percent of the sale price of several head of cattle upon completion of her affairs. For that sum, I was to convey Mistress Coffin by my canoe along the river and bay to market at Dover, and home again. Twenty-fifth of May, I believe it was.
    Mgts.:
And you discharged such agreement?
    H:
I could not, Sirs.
    Mgts.:
Could not?
    H:
She never returned to the wharfs, Your Honors.
    Mgts.:
You both had appointed a time?
    H:
Roughly, Sirs. I was there early and stayed late.
    Mgts.:
Had you looked well? Had you made inquiries? Had you any conjectures from such inquiries?
    H:
I went to market myself, Sirs, on my own accounts. Then I bought a dram at the ordinary, spoke with some who know me. When at the time we agreed to meet she did not appear, I tied my canoe aways beyond the wharf and went back to seek her, guessing she dallied at market once the trading was over.
    Mgts.:
You had no success?
    H:
I saw her not, Sirs.
    Mgts.:
What thought you? And what were your actions when you found her not?
    H:
I was in the dark, Your Honors. I asked after her. Some had seen her at market, but not leaving, alone or with anyone. But she had her ways, Sirs, to charm the beard from Beelzebub, ask me. Proud of her sharp bargaining and of her husband’s faith in like accomplishments. She wasn’t the kind to hide her skill. More like to hold it up for all to know. And more than that, she wasn’t above the pride of woman, truth be known.
    Mgts.:
But her absence, Higgins, how considered you that?
    H:
Darkness, as I say, to me, Sirs. I searched; I waited. I presumed a sudden notion took her to be away. Why? With who? I know not. Perhaps she struck a passion in one among the crowd. In time, I came to trust only that she lost herself.
    Mgts.:
You insinuate, man? Be clear on these matters. Keep to what you know to be true, by your sworn oath.
    H:
Sirs, I left for home without payment promised me. Thus am I also out my fee. I know only what I have said, Sirs. The day was hot, as if Nature had been wrenched in May to some late summer’s noon. Once we were well upon the water she dropped her cloak. Then unfastened her cap.Loos’d her bodice, free as that. There was such heat I pulled my shirt loose as well. But you, and Mr. Coffin too, ought to know she left herself too undone, and caught the eye of more than one waterman and planter along the quay.
    And I to wait for such a one ‘til the sound of Doomsday? Agreements are kept so long only as both parties keep to measures.
    I know nothing more. I heard her fate like all the rest. The marks on her body once found, the sores of lust, the bite of serpents old as the earth.
    Mgts.:
Enough.
    You know nothing more of what became of Mistress Coffin, upon your oath, Higgins?
    H:
That is so, Your Honors.
    Be there much mystery here? Pride, Sirs. And Vanity. A woman’s curse, Devil’s tools, man’s humiliation, as we know. What temptings might not lead to what sorrows? What might not befall one so near the snares and pits?
    Wait, Sirs.
    Had you seen