r touched the springs of human character
and brought forth the reserve heroism of human life, was added that
issue which stirs deepest the human heart,--the issue of religion. The
contest was not merely between king and people: it was a contest as
well between the people themselves as to the form of religion they
desired as the expression of their faith.

Under such conditions women could not be kept out of the turmoil and
the strife; perhaps one of the important ends which this distressful
period brought about was the crystallizing of the convictions of many
women, who otherwise would not have thought or felt deeply upon
that subject which is fundamental to the welfare of a nation and
the character of its people,--the subject of religion. Royalists
and Puritans, the women were arrayed on each side. They followed the
issues with an earnest alertness born of an intelligent understanding
of the causes involved and their own vital relation to the contest in
its results.

One of the Puritan women who literally entered into the fray was Mrs.
Hutchinson. Her father, Sir Allen Apsley, was governor of the Tower
during Sir Walter Raleigh's incarceration. It is probable that Mrs.
Hutchinson had some knowledge of medicine, because during the siege of
Nottingham she was actively engaged in dressing the soldiers' wounds
and furnishing them with drugs and lotions suitable to their cases,
and met with great success in her role of physician even in the cases
of those of some who were dangerously wounded. But it was not solely
in the character of nurse and physician that she was so active, for,
in conjunction with the other women of the town, after the departure
of the Royalist forces, she aided in districting the city for patrols
of fifty, the courageous women thus taking an active share in the
arduous duties of the town's defence. This intrepid woman later
appeared in the character of peacemaker. The elections of 1660 were
of a violent character, on account of the ill feeling between the
Royalists of the town and the soldiers of the Commonwealth. At the
critical moment, Mrs. Hutchinson arrived, and, being acquainted with
the captains, persuaded them to countenance no tumultuous methods,
whatever might be the provocation, but to make complaint in regular
form to the general and let him assume the work of preserving the
peace. This they consented to do; and the townsmen were equally
amenable to her wise counsel, and contracted to rest