indecorous exhibitions which, abstractedly considered, well deserved
the moderate chastisement of the rod. These extravagances, and the
persecution which was at once their cause and consequence, continued
to increase, till in the year 1659 the government of Massachusetts Bay
indulged two members of the Quaker sect with the crown of martyrdom.

An indelible stain of blood is upon the hands of all who consented to
this act, but a large share of the awful responsibility must rest upon
the person then at the head of the government. He was a man of narrow
mind and imperfect education, and his uncompromising bigotry was made
hot and mischievous by violent and hasty passions; he exerted his
influence indecorously and unjustifiably to compass the death of the
enthusiasts, and his whole conduct in respect to them was marked by
brutal cruelty. The Quakers, whose revengeful feelings were not less
deep because they were inactive, remembered this man and his
associates in after-times. The historian of the sect affirms that by
the wrath of Heaven a blight fell upon the land in the vicinity of the
"bloody town" of Boston, so that no wheat would grow there; and he
takes his stand, as it were, among the graves of the ancient
persecutors, and triumphantly recounts the judgments that overtook
them in old age or at the parting-hour. He tells us that they died
suddenly and violently and in madness, but nothing can exceed the
bitter mockery with which he records the loathsome disease and "death
by rottenness" of the fierce and cruel governor.

* * * * *

On the evening of the autumn day that had witnessed the martyrdom of
two men of the Quaker persuasion, a Puritan settler was returning from
the metropolis to the neighboring country-town in which he resided.