At length a rumor reached our shores that the prince of Orange had ventured on an enterprise the success of which would be the triumph of civil and religious rights and the salvation of New England . It was but a doubtful whisper ; it might be false or the attempt might fail , and in either case the man that stirred against King James would lose his head . Still , the intelligence produced a marked effect . The people smiled mysteriously in the streets and threw bold glances at their oppressors , while far and wide there was a subdued and silent agitation , as if the slightest signal would rouse the whole land from its sluggish despondency . Aware of their danger , the rulers resolved to avert it by an imposing display of strength , and perhaps to confirm their despotism by yet harsher measures . One afternoon in April , 1689 , Sir Edmund Andros and his favorite councillors , being warm with wine , assembled the red-coats of the governor 's guard and made their appearance in the streets of Boston . The sun was near setting when the march commenced . The roll of the drum at that unquiet crisis seemed to go through the streets less as the martial music of the soldiers than as a muster-call to the inhabitants themselves . A multitude by various avenues assembled in King street , which was destined to be the scene , nearly a century afterward , of another encounter between the troops of Britain and a people struggling against her tyranny . Though more than sixty years had elapsed since the Pilgrims came , this crowd of their descendants still showed the strong and sombre features of their character perhaps more strikingly in such a stern emergency than on happier occasions . There was the sober garb , the general severity of mien , the gloomy but undismayed expression , the scriptural forms of speech and the confidence in Heaven 's blessing on a righteous cause which would have marked a band of the original Puritans when threatened by some peril of the wilderness . Indeed , it was not yet time for the old spirit to be extinct , since there were men in the street that day who had worshipped there beneath the trees before a house was reared to the God for whom they had become exiles . Old soldiers of the Parliament were here , too , smiling grimly at the thought that their aged arms might strike another blow against the house of Stuart . Here , also , were the veterans of King Philip 's war , who had burned villages and slaughtered young and old with pious fierceness while the godly souls throughout the land were helping them with prayer . Several ministers were scattered among the crowd , which , unlike all other mobs , regarded them with such reverence as if there were sanctity in their very garments . These holy men exerted their influence to quiet the people , but not to disperse them . Meantime , the purpose of the governor in disturbing the peace of the town at a period when the slightest commotion might throw the country into a ferment was almost the Universal subject of inquiry , and variously explained . `` Satan will strike his master-stroke presently , '' cried some , `` because he knoweth that his time is short . All our godly pastors are to be dragged to prison . We shall see them at a Smithfield fire in King street . ''
Hereupon the people XXXXX each parish gathered closer round their minister , who looked calmly upward and assumed a more apostolic dignity , as well befitted a candidate for the highest honor of his profession -- a crown of martyrdom .
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