ietly endured
persecution at the hands of the King's officers. Then they
began to talk of fleeing to Holland, whither other dissenters
had already escaped. In 1607 some of the Scrooby congregation
unsuccessfully attempted the flight. A few months later they
succeeded in reaching Amsterdam, where they intended to remain.
But finding the English exiles there involved in theological
disputes, they acted on Robinson's advice and sought a more
peaceful home in Leyden.

Here, about three hundred in number, they arrived in 1609, soon
after Spain had granted Holland the Twelve Years' Peace, after
the long Netherland wars. For eleven years the Pilgrims, as
they were already called, remained in their new home, living by
various employments. During that time the colony increased to
more than a thousand souls.

For several years the exiled Pilgrims abode at Leyden in comparative
peace. So mutual was the esteem of both pastor and people that it might
be said of them, "as of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius and the people of
Rome: it was hard to judge whether he delighted more in having such a
people, or they in having such a pastor." With their spiritual, their
temporal interests were objects of his care, so that he was "every way
as a common father to them." And when removed from them by death, as he
was in a few years, they sustained "such a loss as they saw could not be
easily repaired, for it was as hard for them to find such another leader
and feeder as the Taborites to find another Ziska."

Eight years' residence, however, in a land of strangers, subjected to
its trials and burdened with its sorrows, satisfied this little band
that Holland could not be for them a permanent home. The "hardness of
the place" discouraged their friends from joining them. Premature age
was creeping upon the vigorous. Severe toil enfeebled their children.
The corruption of the Dutch youth was pernicious in its influence. They
were Englishmen, attached to the land of their nativity. The Sabbath, to
them a sacred institution, was openly neglected. A suitable education
was difficult to be obtained for their children. The truce with Spain
was drawing to a close, and the renewal of hostilities was seriously
apprehended. But the motive above all others which prompted their
removal was a "great hope and inward zeal of laying some good foundation
for the propagating and advancing of the G