True Stories from History and Biography

re, with this flowery wreath of young people around him. When he talked to them, it was the past speaking to the present,-or rather to the future, for the children were of a

r the future. He could have wished that they might be always the happy, youthful creatures, who had hitherto sported around his chair, without inquiring whether it had a history. It grieved him to think that his litt

od of life, when the veil of mortality is apt to hang heavily over the soul,-still, in his inmost being, he was conscious of something that he would not have exchanged for the best happiness of childhood. It was a bliss to which every sort of earthly experience,-all that he had e

air, trusting that a profounder wisdom than his own would extract, from th

of Charles the Second, on his restoration to his father's throne. When death had stricken Oliver Cromwell, that mighty protector had no sincerer mourners than in New England. The new king had b

other James, the patriarchs of New England began to tremble. King James was a bigoted Roman Catholic, and was known to be of an arbitrary temper. It was feared by all Protestants, and chiefly by the

ing, and as the foundation of all their liberties, was declared void. The colonists were now no longer freemen; they were entirely dependent on the king's pleasure. At first, in 1685, King James appointed Joseph Du

bitants were not allowed to choose representatives, and consequently had no voice whatever in the government, nor control over the measures that were adopted. T

soldiers with him from England, who took possession of the old fortress on Castle Island, and of the fortification on Fort Hill. Sometimes it was rumored that

?" inquir

merica, King James had so misgoverned the people of England, that they sent over to Holland for the Prince of Orange. He had married the king's daughter, and was therefore considered to

ength, and overthrew the government of Sir Edmund Andros. He, with Joseph Dudley, Edmund Randolph, and his other principal adherents, were throw

the first settlers, and had been the intimate companion of all those excellent and famous men who laid the fou

as if he had something very interesting

een placed in the council chamber, for old Governor Bradstreet to take his seat in? Would you believe

[pg 062] Charley, after a shout of delight. "I th

now stood the populous town, had been a wild and forest-covered peninsula. The province, now so fertile, and spotted with thriving villages, had been a desert wilderness. He was surrounded by a shouting multitude, most of whom had been born in the

ernors all dead and

And Haynes, Dudley, Bellingham and Leverett, who had all been governors of Massachusetts, were now likewise in their graves. Old Simon Bradstreet was the sole representative of that departed brotherhood.

re was something warm and real about them. I think, Grandfather, that each of these old governors sh

r some of their successors. But let us go back to our chair. It was occupied by Governor Bradstreet from April, 1689, until

g