coming
to his own, as he desired to do, writing to them concerning his
unwilling absence. They even pleaded lack of funds to transport him and
Mrs. Robinson, though they could send Lyford with his numerous family.
This man and Oldham secretly lapsed back into their congenial ways, and
they busied themselves in efforts to stir up discontent and sedition,
among those who had been generously allowed residence at Plymouth
without assuming the colonial foreign obligations. There were stealthy
gatherings and whisperings, which the government discovered. There was
industrious writing of letters intended for English consumption.

As the mail carrier sailed, the Governor and several others accompanied
her in the shallop until well out, when he called for all the letters of
Lyford and Oldham. The ship master, knowing the evil conduct of those
men on both sides of the sea, cheerfully co-operated, finding over a
score of vicious epistles, many of them bulky, and full of slanders
sufficient to ruin the reputation of the Colony if believed.

At night the Governor returned and nothing was said, the uneasy
malcontents concluding Bradford had gone with messages of his own.
Instead of this, he waited to see what their intentions were, and who
were their adherents, particularly as one of the intercepted letters
promised a change in church and state, and that they would bring this
about soon after the ship's sailing. Therefore, mistaking the Governor's
caution for timidity, without notifying him or the Elder they presumed
to call a meeting of the conspirators, on a certain Sunday.

This was what Bradford had been waiting for, to know the disloyal
constituency. Swiftly he acted now, summoning the whole company to
court. They were urged to state, frankly and fully, all their
grievances, in the open and proper manner; but they had nothing to say,
and stoutly denied the charges laid against them. Their letters being
produced, Lyford was struck dumb; but Oldham began to rage, affecting
righteous wrath over the interference with his mail. He called upon his
supposed sympathizers to have courage and stand forth, but none of them
spoke or moved. The Governor explained to the people the necessity of
suppressing mutinous missives; and the assembly was shocked at the
produced evidence, of seditious plotting in return for uniform
kindness. The weak and variable Lyford, when some of his voluminous
writing was read, suddenly gave way to copious tears