d to
appeal to England for relief and sent Increase Mather, the influential
pastor of the old North Church, across the ocean to plead their cause
with the Crown.

But relief was nearer than they expected. On November 5, 1688, William
of Orange, summoned from Holland to uphold the constitutional liberties
of Protestant England, landed at Torbay, and before the end of the year
James II had fled to France. Rumors of the projected invasion had come
to Boston as early as December, and reports of its success had reached
the ears of the people there during the March following. Finally on
April 4, John Winslow, arriving from Nevis, brought written copies of
the Prince's declaration, issued from Holland, and two weeks later, on
April 18, the leaders in the city, including many members of Andros's
council, supported by the people of Boston and its neighborhood, rose in
revolt, overthrew the government of Andros, and brought tumbling down
the whole structure of the Dominion of New England, which had never from
the beginning had any real or stable foundation. Having armed
themselves, they seized Captain George, commander of the royal frigate,
the _Rose_, lying in the harbor, as he came ashore to find out the cause
of the noise and the tumult. Then they moved on to Fort Hill, where
Andros, Randolph, and others had taken refuge. Here they defied the
soldiers, who refused to fire, captured the fort, and carried their
prisoners off to be lodged in private houses or the common jail. On the
following day, they forced the Castle Island fort in the harbor to
surrender and then imprisoned its commander; they demanded of the
lieutenant in charge the delivery of the royal frigate and carried off
the sails; and as nothing would satisfy the country people who came
armed into the town in the afternoon but the closer confinement of
Andros, they removed him from the private house where he had been lodged
to the fort in the town. So excited was the populace and so serious the
danger of injury to those in confinement, that West, Palmer, and Graham
were sent to the fort on Castle Island for protection; Andros, after two
futile attempts at escape, was lodged in the same quarters, while
Randolph, as deserving of no consideration, was thrust ignominiously
into jail. On the third day a council of safety, consisting of
thirty-seven members, with the old Governor, Bradstreet, eighty-six
years old, at its head, was organized to prepare the way for the
rees