the Indians,
and all the horrors of the fight, till the fires of Dunbar began to burn
again in his old veins, and, overcoming his usual caution, sent him
forth to his last achievement in this world, and perhaps his best. On a
sudden, as the settlers were giving up all for lost, and about to submit
to a general massacre, a strange apparition was seen among them
exhorting them to rally in the name of God. An old man, with long white
locks, and of unusual attire, led the last assault with the most daring
bravery. Not doubting that it was an angel of God, they followed up his
blows, and in a short time repulsed the savages; but their deliverer was
gone. No clue or trace could be found of his coming or going. He was to
them as Melchisedek, "without beginning of life, or end of days;" and
their confirmed superstition that the Lord had sent his angel in answer
to their prayers, though quite in accordance with their enthusiasm, was
doubtless not a little encouraged by the wily pastor himself, as an
innocent means of preventing troublesome inquiries. In many parts of New
England it was long regarded as a miracle, and the final disclosure of
the secret has spoiled the mystery of a genuine old wives' tale.

About three years after this, Whalley gave his soul to God, and was
temporarily buried in the cellar, where he had lived a death-in-life of
fourteen years. Russell was now in a great fright, and with good reason,
for a new crown officer was at work in New England, with a zealous
determination to bring all offenders to justice, and if not the
offenders themselves, then somebody instead of them. Edward Randolph,
who has left a judge Jeffreys' reputation in America to this day, was a
Jehu for the government, and his feelings towards the regicides are well
touched off by Southey, in the words put into his mouth in "Oliver
Newman:"--

"Fifteen years,
They have hid among them the two regicides,
Shifting from den to cover, as we found
Where the scent lay. But, earth them as they will,
I shall unkennel them, and from their holes
Drag them to light and justice."

Alarmed by the energetic measures of such a man, Goffe, who was now
released from his personal attentions to his friend, appears to have
departed from Hadley for a time; while Russell gave currency to a
report, that when last seen, he was on his way towards Virginia. It was
soon added, that he had been actually recognised in New York, in a
farmer