Chapter 16: Altha

Summary

• The narrator, Altha, reflects on the stark difference between her current state as a shackled prisoner and her past, especially the connection she shared with Grace.
• Altha is in a dungeon, feeling desolate with only the distant sounds of wailing and the absence of the spider she befriended to keep her company.
• She contemplates her fate after being hanged as a witch, expressing a desire to be buried and rejoin the earth, unlike the uncertain fate that typically befalls witches.
• Death itself, she muses, is not scary, but the process and pain of dying are the real fears, as she has seen no peaceful deaths and does not expect one for herself.
• Haunted by sleep filled with visions of her execution, Altha awakens to find herself in the courtroom, seeing Grace among the gallery of observers at her trial.
• The trial progresses with the prosecutor summoning Doctor Smythson to testify, who starts by recounting his activities on the day John Milburn died.
• Doctor Smythson relates finding Milburn dead with injuries that suggested he was trampled by animals, something not uncommon in farming accidents according to his experience.
• Further questioning reveals that Altha was found with the widow, Grace Milburn, when Doctor Smythson arrived at the scene of the incident.
• Altha and her mother are described by the physician as nuisances, as they often interfered with his treatments of villagers, citing instances where they provided alternative remedies that contradicted his own.
• A patient whom Altha treated with broth instead of bloodletting by leeches as prescribed by the physician survived, but another patient, treated by Altha and her mother during Altha's childhood, died.
• The prosecutor questions Smythson about witches and their familiars as described in "Daemonologie," attempting to establish Altha's association with such practices.
• Although Smythson had not seen any familiars himself, the tension rises when he confirms having examined and identified a witch's mark on Altha while in jail.
• In front of the judges, the prosecutor requests to exhibit Altha's body to show the witch's mark to the court, which is granted.
• After Altha is exposed, the physician retracts his previous claim, stating he can no longer see the witch's mark, suggesting it might just have been a sore or other minor affliction.
• The furious prosecutor reluctantly concludes the examination and allows Altha to be clothed again, ending the chapter on a note of tenuous relief for Altha.