The command of the Spirit , inaudible except to the soul and not to be controverted on grounds of human wisdom , was made a plea for most indecorous exhibitions which , abstractedly considered , well deserved the moderate chastisement of the rod . These extravagances , and the persecution which was at once their cause and consequence , continued to increase , till in the year 1659 the government of Massachusetts Bay indulged two members of the Quaker sect with the crown of martyrdom . An indelible stain of blood is upon the hands of all who consented to this act , but a large share of the awful responsibility must rest upon the person then at the head of the government . He was a man of narrow mind and imperfect education , and his uncompromising bigotry was made hot and mischievous by violent and hasty passions ; he exerted his influence indecorously and unjustifiably to compass the death of the enthusiasts , and his whole conduct in respect to them was marked by brutal cruelty . The Quakers , whose revengeful feelings were not less deep because they were inactive , remembered this man and his associates in after-times . The historian of the sect affirms that by the wrath of Heaven a blight fell upon the land in the vicinity of the `` bloody town '' of Boston , so that no wheat would grow there ; and he takes his stand , as it were , among the graves of the ancient persecutors , and triumphantly recounts the judgments that overtook them in old age or at the parting-hour . He tells us that they died suddenly and violently and in madness , but nothing can exceed the bitter mockery with which he records the loathsome disease and `` death by rottenness '' of the fierce and cruel governor . * * * * * On the evening of the autumn day that had witnessed the martyrdom of two men of the Quaker persuasion , a Puritan settler was returning from the metropolis to the neighboring country-town in which he resided . The air was cool , the sky clear , and the lingering twilight was made brighter by the rays of a young moon which had now nearly reached the verge of the horizon . The traveller , a man of middle age , wrapped in a gray frieze cloak , quickened his pace when he had reached the outskirts of the town , for a gloomy extent of nearly four miles lay between him and his home . The low straw-thatched houses were scattered at considerable intervals along the road , and , the country having been settled but about thirty years , the tracts of original forest still bore no small proportion to the cultivated ground . The autumn wind wandered among the branches , whirling away the leaves from all except the pine trees and moaning as if it lamented the desolation of which it was the instrument . The road had penetrated the mass of woods that lay nearest to the town , and was just emerging into an open space , when the traveller 's ears were saluted by a sound more mournful than even that of the wind . It was like the wailing of some one in distress , and it seemed to proceed from beneath a tall and lonely fir tree in the centre of a cleared but unenclosed and uncultivated field . The Puritan could not but remember that this was the very spot which had been made accursed a few hours before by the execution of the Quakers , whose bodies had been thrown together into one hasty grave beneath the tree on which they suffered . He struggled , however , against the superstitious fears which belonged to the age , and compelled himself to pause and listen . `` The voice is most likely mortal , nor have I cause to tremble if it be otherwise , '' thought he , straining his eyes through the dim moonlight . `` Methinks it is like the wailing of a child -- some infant , it may be , which has strayed from its mother and chanced upon this place of death . For the ease of mine own conscience I must search this matter out . '' He therefore left the path and walked somewhat fearfully across the field .
Though now so desolate , its soil was pressed down and trampled by the thousand footsteps of those who had witnessed the spectacle of that XXXXX , all of whom had now retired , leaving the dead to their loneliness .
Bay Methinks Quaker Quakers day disease execution hours parting-hour years