compromise between the two parties. For Governor Andros had
already gained his object; he had taken over the government of
Connecticut, and the people had saved their pride because they
had not surrendered their charter.

The charter lay hidden for two years; not all that time in the
oak tree, of course, but in some other safe place. One tradition
says it was kept for a while in Guilford in the house of Andrew
Leete. At the end of two years there was a revolution in England,
and William and Mary came to the English throne. Then the charter
was taken out of its hiding-place--wherever that was--and
government was at once resumed under the same old patent which
had disappeared so mysteriously on that famous Allhallowe'en
night.

In the Memorial Hall of the State Library at Hartford, under a
glass shield, in a fireproof compartment built into the end wall
of the room, there hangs to-day one of the two original copies of
the Connecticut Charter. It is in a good state of preservation,
its lettering is clear and distinct, and so is the portrait
engraved upon it of King Charles the Second who gave it to
Governor John Winthrop. A part of its present frame is made from
the wood of the Charter Oak. The other copy, that is, what
remains of it, can be seen in the box which is owned by the
Historical Society.

When, after the Revolutionary War, the Colony of Connecticut
became the State of Connecticut, the charter of the colony was
adopted without alteration as the State Constitution. No change
was made in it until 1818.