ernment in his hands. What confederates he may have I know not yet, but have sent persons to apprehend him, and have raised the trained bands to keep the peace. . . . I have reason to believe that he has been set on by some of the Massachusetts colony, which he has lately visited. If it be their design to cause a disturbance, it will be impossible to govern them without a frigate. I acted so cautiously on my arrival, that I gave way to their humors until I could get the fort and militia into safe hands. The rebels will be tried by the laws of England on 1st of February. Gove was tried on the date named, having been indicted by the justices of the peace, or rather held under their warrant, on the 22d of January, and indicted by the grand jury February 2. The special justices appointed for the trial were Waldron, Vaughan, and Thomas Daniel, a majority of them unfriendly to Mason and the governor; the jurors summoned seem to have been good men, representing the four towns and the fortified island, now New Castle. They were indicted for "levying war against his majesty,"-of which, of course, they could only be technically guilty, since they attacked nobody, although in arms, until a marshal attempted to arrest Gove and his men, three in all, before they reached Exe from Seabrook, whence they started. These were Edward Gove, John, his son, and William Healey, his servant. Repulsing the marshal, they rode on to Exeter, where they recruited eight more men,-the three Wadleighs, Edward Smith, John Sleeper, Mark Baker, Thomas Rawlings, and John Young, - family names still common in that part of New Hampshire. Returning through the northwest of Hampton (over Bride Hill, I suppose), all mounted, and with a trumpeter at their head, they were halted by the foot-soldiers of Hampton, and all surrendered, with out firing a shot or inflicting a wound, -only the trumpeter escaping by the speed of his horse. But as the declared purpose of Gove was to change the government existing by the king's special command, the offense could be described as war against Charles II. So far as Gove had any expressed animosity it was against James II, then Duke of York, from whom Cranfield held his commission of vice-admiral,—and that as being a Papist, and wishing to introduce Papistry in New Hampshire. In his letter to Justice Weare and others, who signed the warrant for his arrest (written from his prison at Great Island), he calls the sovereign "our gracious King Charles the Second, of blessed memory," as if he believed him to be already dead, though Charles did not die till February 6, 1685. There had been so many plots and rumors of plots, that Gove, who had been under great excitement during the session of the assembly, might easily, in his distemper of mind, suppose the king dead, and a Catholic on the throne. A portion of this rambling letter, dated January 29, is valuable as describing his imprisonment, and censuring Barefoot, who commanded at the fort and prison : Gentlemen, according to what I know and believe, I am falsely indicted, and I am abused, notwithstanding, by another indite ment,-being in irons by Capt. Barefoot's order, which irons are called bilboes. We have a hard prison, a good keeper, a hard captain,-irons an inch over, five foot and several inches long,-two men locked together. Yet I had, I thank God for it, a very good night's lodging-better than I had fourteen or fifteen nights before. The allusion here seems to be to some wakeful nights during the session of the assembly, and not to any thence be drawn to the place of execution, and there be hanged by the neck, but cut down alive, and then his entrails be taken out and burned before his face, his head cut off, his body divided into four quarters, and his head and quarters disposed of at the king's pleasure." The comment of Cranfield after his trial (Feb. 20, 1683) was: To Sir Leoline Jenkins, secretary of state,-I send you on the ship Richard, under Mr. man, who is condemned to death for raising a rebellion in this province. I intended to execute him here, for terror to the whole party, who are still mutinous, had my commission allowed it. Nine others were taken besides Gove, and on trial were convicted, but security has been taken for their appearance, and they have been respited, pending signification of the king's pleasure. I cannot, with safety to myself and the province, keep Gove longer in custody, for, besides the great expense of guards for him, I have reason to fear that he may escape. Moreover, by my commission I am ordered to send home rebels-and if Gove escape the sentence of the law, there is an end of the king's government in New Hampshire. I hear that it is designed to petition for Gove's life, and that it is to be managed by messengers from Boston. If so, this will the more convince me that Gove received encouragement from that quarter. . . . Major Pike, one of the magistrates, and a member of the fac recent loss of sleep. It was sworn by Richard Martin and Reuben Hull of Portsmouth, that Gove had declared in that town, before he armed himself, that Governor Cranfield acted as admiral by the Duke of York's commission, who was a Papist and would bring popery in amongst them; that Cranfield was a pretended governor, and his commission signed in Scotland, and that Martin and others ought to join him for the recovery of liberties infringed by his majesty's Randolph's care, Edward Gove, an assemblyplacing a governor over them. The lieutenant of the Hampton foot company then swore that he arrested Gove in arms, whereupon, as Randolph says, "Gove admitted the matter of fact," and questioned Cranfield's power, adding that he had proclaimed the day of Charles First's death as a fast to be annually observed (January 30), and obliged the ministers to preach on that day. The other prisoners pleaded not guilty, and alleged "they were drawn in by Gove." The jury, after long consideration, found Gove guilty of high treason, and by special verdict, that the ten others were in arms against his majesty. "Upon which," says Randolph, "the court "the court (Waldron) proceeded to give judgment and of condemnation passed sentence upon Gove. But in regard the other prisoners were specially found, the governor ordered the court to respite their judgment till his majesty's pleasure should be known therein, most of them being young men, and altogether unacquainted with the laws of England." Waldron, in tears, gave Gove the barbarous sentence of the law against treason, "That he be carried back to the place whence he came, and from tion, came to me the night before Gove's trial, with several depositions to certify that Gove was of unsound mind; in order to avoid his prosecution I am forced to keep the militia in arms till Gove is shipped off, and I hope to keep the peace, but I beg that Mr. Randolph may be sent back to me with a small frigate, to await orders, otherwise I can promise the king little success in the charge committed to me. Mr. Randolph has been very diligent,-having made five journeys this winter from Boston hither, a distance of seventy miles, in the extremity of weather. He now undertakes the duty and cost of transporting Gove. I cannot repay him from Colonial funds, as they are brought so low by the expense of Gove's rising. I beg therefore that his expenses may be allowed. Randolph arrived at Falmouth, in England, late in May, having delayed sailing from Boston until the end of March, for there is a warrant directed by Cranfield to Thomas Joules, of the ship Richard of Boston, to "transport Edward Gove, lately sentenced to death for high treason, to England, there to be executed according to the king's order," and it is dated March 29. On April 2 Cranfield notified Sir L. Jenkins that he had shipped Gove, and that "the captain is by agreement to receive £20." On the 4th of June Randolph was in London, and on the 7th the lieutenant of the tower notified Sir Leoline thus: with him,-one to lie in his chamber, and one never to be out of his sight. Our warder-houses are so full of our officers that we have no place for prisoners." Here, then, for the present we leave Edward Gove, soon to be joined, in another wing of the great Tower of London, by Algernon Sidney and Lord William Russell, maliciously prosecuted for their opinions and for their former services in the cause of political and religious freedom, and presently to be tried before Jeffries, with insult by a packed jury, and sent to the block as traitors. Gove must have seen and perhaps talked with them; he looked forward either to a fate like theirs, or to lifelong imprisonment, but the Lord in whom he trusted gave a very different issue to his adventure. [To be concluded.] "I received a prisoner last night by your warrant. I thought you had been at Hampton court this day or I should have acknowledged it earlier. The fellow is poor, and I wish to know it the king will allow him maintenance. I keep two warders POVERTY. By Ormsby A. Court. And 'mid the measured beat of endless looms; The ceaseless clack and whir of myriad gears; I see a Spectre stalk the steaming rooms, Guant, wan, and bending under countless years. In alleys dark and dank, of noisome smells; I see that ghastly Spectre's fateful grip. In crowded streets that hum with vice and toil; What lesson lingers in His grewsome wake? THE POET. By Hale Howard Richardson. Soul-deep was nursed a talent rich, And acts divinely fair; The gentle touch, the tender look, That ne'er misunderstood, Proclaimed the poet soul within, The lyric sweet and good. The words that wrought but happiness, The tone with music's ring, The beautiful was everywhere, The good in everything; And so perchance the songs that have A weary world beguiled, A blessed mother whispered them To her precious little child! |