the pupils. In coming out, we met at the door a respectable
well-dressed man and a woman, both of them deaf and dumb, who had
formerly been pupils here, had formed an attachment to each other,
married, settled comfortably in life, and were now coming to pay a
visit to their former home.

On our return we saw the celebrated Charter Oak. The early settlers of
this place had obtained from the second Charles, and that in the very
year in which 2,000 ministers were ejected from the Church of England,
a most favourable charter--far more so than the Colonial Office in the
present day would grant. Charles, however, repented having granted it,
and in 1687 sent over Sir Edmund Andross, under some pretence or other,
to demand it back. It was night, and the Legislative Assembly were
convened on the subject, when suddenly the lights were extinguished,
and the charter was missing. For a long time it was not known, except
to the initiated, what had become of it. When, however, the danger was
past, the Charter was forthcoming. It had been concealed in the hollow
of this old oak, which still survives. I was gratified in seeing the
document carefully preserved in the office of the Secretary of State.
It is dated 1662, and "in the fourteenth year of our reign," though in
reality Charles had then reigned but two years.




LETTER XXXIII.

The "Retreat"--Introductions to the Insane--Piety and Profanity
--Service in the Fourth Church--Memorials of the Pilgrims--Dr.
Bushnell and his Opinions--The Mother Church and its Burying-Ground