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 of 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 . It was actually fancied at that period that New England might have a John Rogers of her own to take the place of that worthy in the Primer . `` The pope of Rome has given orders for a new St. Bartholomew , '' cried others . `` We are to be massacred , man and male-child . '' Neither was this rumor wholly discredited ; although the wiser class believed the governor 's object somewhat less atrocious . His predecessor under the old charter , Bradstreet , a venerable companion of the first settlers , was known to be in town . There were grounds for conjecturing that Sir Edmund Andros intended at once to strike terror by a parade of military force and to confound the opposite faction by possessing himself of their chief . `` Stand firm for the old charter-governor ! '' shouted the crowd , seizing upon the idea -- `` the good old Governor Bradstreet ! ''
While this cry was at the loudest the people were surprised XXXXX the well-known figure of Governor Bradstreet himself , a patriarch of nearly ninety , who appeared on the elevated steps of a door and with characteristic mildness besought them to submit to the constituted authorities .
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