and borders were
tormented as before.

The French governor thought that the New England country people, who had
to bear the brunt of the war, were ready to accept his terms. The French
court approved the plan, though not without distrust; for some enemy of
the governor told Ponchartrain that under pretence of negotiations he
and Dudley were carrying on trading speculations,--which is certainly a
baseless slander.[85] Vaudreuil on his part had strongly suspected
Dudley's emissary, Vetch, of illicit trade during his visit to Quebec;
and perhaps there was ground for the suspicion. It is certain that
Vetch, who had visited the St. Lawrence before, lost no opportunity of
studying the river, and looked forward to a time when he could turn his
knowledge to practical account.[86]

Joseph Dudley, governor of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, was the son
of a former governor of Massachusetts,--that upright, sturdy, narrow,
bigoted old Puritan, Thomas Dudley, in whose pocket was found after his
death the notable couplet,--

"Let men of God in courts and churches watch
O'er such as do a toleration hatch."

Such a son of such a father was the marvel of New England. Those who
clung to the old traditions and mourned for the old theocracy under the
old charter, hated Joseph Dudley as a renegade; and the worshippers of
the Puritans have not forgiven him to this day. He had been president of
the council under the detested Andros, and when that representative of
the Stuarts was overthrown by a popular revolution, both he and Dudley
were sent prisoners to England. Here they found a reception different
from the expectations and wishes of those who sent them. Dudley became a
member of Parliament and lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Wight, and
was at length, in the beginning of the reign of Queen Anne, sent back to
govern those who had cast him out. Any governor imposed on them by
England would have been an offence; but Joseph Dudley was more than they
could bear.

He found bitter opposition from the old Puritan party. The two Mathers,
father and son, who through policy had at first favored him, soon
denounced him with insolent malignity, and the honest and conscientious
Samuel Sewall regarded him with as much asperity as his kindly nature
would permit. To the party of religious and political independency he
was an abomination, and great efforts were made to get him recalled. Two
pamphlets of the time, one printed in 1707 and t