Sir Edmund thought that he had succeeded, when suddenly the lights were
all put out, and total darkness followed. There was no noise, no
conflict, but all was quiet. When the candles were again lighted, _the
charter was gone_! Sir Edmund was disconcerted. He declared the
government of Connecticut to be in his own hands, and that the colony
was annexed to Massachusetts and the other New England colonies, and
proceeded to appoint officers. Captain Jeremiah Wadsworth, a patriot of
those times, had hidden the charter in the hollow of Wyllis's oak,
whence it was afterward known as the Charter Oak."

"Then the English governor couldn't get it!" exclaimed Malcolm,
delightedly. "Wasn't that splendid?"

"It was a grand hiding-place, certainly, for no one would think of
looking inside a tree for such a thing as that, and they were grand men
who preserved their country's liberties in those trying times. But more
peaceful years were at hand. About eighteen months after the charter had
disappeared so mysteriously, the tyrant James II. was compelled to give
up his throne to his daughter and son-in-law, the prince and princess of
Orange, and Governor Treat and his associates again took the government
of Connecticut under the old charter, which the hollow oak had
faithfully kept from harm. No tree in our whole country has received
more attention than this historic Hartford oak; and when, at last, its
mere shell of a trunk was laid low by a storm, it seemed as if a large
part of the city had been swept away.

"Ancient oaks are apt to be almost entirely without branches; the huge
trunk, with an opening at the top, and often with one also at the
bottom, stands like a maimed giant, just tottering, perhaps, to its
fall, because of the decay going on within, while outside all seems fair