Rec._ iii, 113. May 26, 1647. L200 was the equivalent of
about $5,000.]
The conspirators of the poorer class were treated with scant ceremony. A
carpenter named Joy was in Dand's study when the officers entered. He
asked if the warrant was in the king's name. "He was laid hold on, and
kept in irons about four or five days, and then he humbled himself...for
meddling in matters belonging not to him, and blessed God for these irons
upon his legs, hoping they should do him good while he lived." [Footnote:
Winthrop, ii. 294.]
But though the government could oppress the men, they could not make their
principles unpopular, and the next December after Vassal and his friends
had left the colony, the orthodox Samuel Symonds of Ipswich wrote
mournfully to Winthrop: "I am informed that coppies of the petition are
spreading here, and divers (specially young men and women) are taken with
it, and are apt to wonder why such men should be troubled that speake as
they doe: not being able suddenly to discerne the poyson in the sweet
wine, nor the fire wrapped up in the straw." [Footnote: Felt's _Eccl.
Hist._ i. 593.] The petitioners, however, never found redress. Edward
Winslow had been sent to London as agent, and in 1648 he was able to write
that their "hopes and endeavours ... had been blasted by the special
providence of the Lord who still wrought for us.
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