FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103  
104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>  
he Indian Hoghan Moghan, too, Impartial justice, in his stead did Hang an old weaver that was bed-rid." The whole circumstance is cloudy, and the reader may accept either version that touches his fancy. THE UNKNOWN CHAMPION There was that in the very air of the New World that made the Pilgrims revolt against priests and kings. The Revolution was long a-breeding before shots were fired at Lexington. Stout old Endicott, having conceived a dislike to the British flag because to his mind the cross was a relic of popery, paraded his soldiers and with his sword ripped out the offending emblem in their presence. There was a faint cry of "Treason!" but he answered, "I will avouch the deed before God and man. Beat a flourish, drummer. Shout for the ensign of New England. Pope nor tyrant hath part in it now." And a loud huzza of independence went forth. With this sentiment confirmed among the people, it is not surprising that the judges who had condemned a papist king--Charles I.--to the block should find welcome in this land. For months at a time they lived in cellars and garrets in various parts of New England, their hiding-places kept secret from the royal sheriffs who were seeking them. For a time they had shelter in a cave in West Rock, New Haven, and once in that town they were crouching beneath the bridge that a pursuing party crossed in search of them. In Ipswich the house is pointed out where they were concealed in the cellar, and the superstitious believed that, as a penalty for their regicidal decision, they are doomed to stay there, crying vainly for deliverance. Philip, the Narragansett chief, had declared war on the people of New England, and was waging it with a persistence and fury that spread terror through the country. It was a struggle against manifest destiny, such as must needs be repeated whenever civilization comes to dispute a place in new lands with savagery, and which has been continued, more and more feebly, to our own day. The war was bloody, and for a long time the issue hung in the balance. At last the Indian king was driven westward. The Nipmucks joined him in the Connecticut Valley, and he laid siege to the lonely settlements of Brookfield, Northfield, Deerfield, and Springfield, killing, scalping, and burning without mercy. On the 1st of September, 1675, he attacked Hadley while its people were at church, the war-yelp interrupting a prayer of the pastor. All the men of the
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   79   80   81   82   83   84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103  
104   105   106   107   108   109   110   >>  



Top keywords:

England

 
people
 

Indian

 

Springfield

 

doomed

 

crying

 

decision

 

killing

 
scalping
 

penalty


regicidal

 

pastor

 

vainly

 

Philip

 

persistence

 
waging
 

church

 

interrupting

 
Narragansett
 

prayer


declared

 

deliverance

 

superstitious

 

beneath

 
crouching
 

bridge

 

pursuing

 

crossed

 

search

 

concealed


cellar

 

burning

 
spread
 
pointed
 

Ipswich

 

believed

 

balance

 

Brookfield

 

Hadley

 

bloody


feebly

 
settlements
 

Valley

 

Connecticut

 

September

 

lonely

 

attacked

 

driven

 
westward
 
Nipmucks