"So, in a very cold day, your deputy, Walden, caused these women to be
stripp'd naked from the middle upward, and tyed to a cart, and after a
while cruelly whipp'd them, whilst the priest stood and looked, and
laughed at it.... They went with the executioner to Hampton, and through
dirt and snow at Salisbury, half way the leg deep, the constable forced
them after the cart's tayl at which he whipp'd them." [Footnote: _New
England Judged_, pp. 366, 367.]
Had the Reverend John Rayner but followed the cart, to see that his three
hundred and thirty lashes were all given with the same ferocity which
warmed his heart to mirth at Dover, before his journey's end he would
certainly have joyed in giving thanks to God over the women's gory
corpses, freezing amid the snow. His negligence saved their lives, for
when the ghastly pilgrims passed through Salisbury, the people to their
eternal honor set the captives free.
Soon after, on Sunday,--"Whilst Alice Ambrose was at prayer, two
constables ... came ... and taking her ... dragged her out of doors, and
then with her face toward the snow, which was knee deep, over stumps and
old trees near a mile; when they had wearied themselves they ... left the
prisoner in an house ... and fetched Mary Tomkins, whom in like manner
they dragged with her face toward the snow.
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