by this time the trial of the writs had
certainly gone against the colony; and that the authorities would do
much to commend the colony to his majesty's good pleasure by entering
a formal surrender of the charter. The colony authorities were
possibly as well versed in the law of the case as Andros, and they
took good care to do nothing of the sort; and, as the event showed,
they thus saved the charter.

The assembly met as usual in October, 1687; but their records show
that they were in profound doubt and distress. Andros was with them,
accompanied by some sixty regular soldiers, to enforce his demand for
the charter. It is certain that he did not get it, tho the records, as
usual, are cautious enough to give no reason why. Tradition is
responsible for the story of the charter oak. The assembly had met the
royal governor in the meeting-house; the demand for the charter had
been made; and the assembly had exhausted the resources of language to
show to Andros how dear it was to them, and how impossible it was to
give it up. Andros was immovable; he had watched that charter with
longing eyes from the banks of the Hudson, and he had no intention of
giving up his object now that the king had put him in power on the
banks of the Connecticut.

Toward evening the case had become desperate. The little democracy was
at last driven into a corner, where its old policy seemed no longer
available; it must resist openly, or make a formal surrender of its
charter. Just as the lights were lighted, the legal authorities
yielded so far as to order the precious document to be brought in and
laid on the table before the eyes of Andros. Then came a little more
debate. Suddenly the lights were blown out; Captain Wadsworth, of
Hartford, carried off the charter, and hid it in a hollow oak-tree on
the estate of the Wyllyses, just across the "riveret;" and when the
lights were relighted the colony was no longer able to comply with
Andros's demand for a surrender.

Altho the account of the affair is traditional, it is difficult to
see any good grounds for impeaching it on that account. It supplies,
in the simplest and most natural manner, a blank in the Hartford
proceedings of Andros which would otherwise be quite unaccountable.
His plain purpose was to force Connecticut into a position where she
must either surrender the charter or resist openly. He failed: the
charter never was in his possession; and the official records assign
no reason for