en such a journey would have been impracticable, he was
afterwards permitted to remain at Salem until the spring.

With great apparent unconcern he returned to his home, where his fond
and admiring wife welcomed him with joy, and strengthened his spirit by
the cheerful manner in which she received the news of their sentence of
banishment. She had felt an undefined dread of something much more hard
to bear--of something which might possibly separate her husband from
her: but banishment _with him_ was only a change of home, and, let
their lot be cast where it might, she could be happy. Indeed, she
entertained a hope that. Roger would consent to remove to Plymouth, and
take up his abode there, which would have, given her extreme
satisfaction. But she soon found that this hope could not be
accomplished; for her enthusiastic husband had formed a design of
founding a church of his own, and of being entirely independent of all
government in spiritual matters. In order to carry out this purpose, he
daringly continued to hold the obnoxious assemblies in his own house,
and to instill his opinions into the minds of the many young and
zealous friends who gathered around him. These meetings were even more
numerously attended after his return from Boston than they were before
he was summoned to the bar of the General Assembly; for persecution and
injustice naturally recoil on the perpetrators of it, and the victim of
such harsh measures is sure to gain friends and supporters among the
warm-hearted and the generous.

A report of these proceedings was carried to Boston, and also a rumor
of Williams's supposed plan for founding an independent church and
settlement in Narragansett Bay. It was even declared that some of his
friends had already gone off to the south, and were seeking, a fitting
spot on which to commence building.

This information roused the fears, as well as the wrath, of the
government. The eloquence and abilities of Williams were well known to
the rulers, and they dreaded the influence that he would inevitably
exercise over the neighboring churches, if he established himself and
his followers in a district so contiguous to their own. They,
therefore, resolved to employ still more harsh and stringent measures
than had yet been attempted, in order to put a stop to his disorderly
proceedings, and prevent the further dissemination of his opinions. He
was, accordingly, once more summoned to the chief town; and, had he
ob