...On the next morning, which
was excessive cold, they got a canoe ... and so carried them to the
harbour's mouth, threatning, that 'They would now so do with them, as that
they would be troubled with them no more.' The women being unwilling to
go, they forced them down a very steep place in the snow, dragging Mary
Tomkins over the stumps of trees to the water side, so that she was much
bruised, and fainted under their hands: They plucked Alice Ambrose into
the water, and kept her swimming by the canoe in great danger of drowning,
or being frozen to death. They would in all probability have proceeded in
their wicked purpose to the murthering of those three women, had they not
been prevented by a sudden storm, which drove them back to the house
again. They kept the women there till near midnight, and then cruelly
turned them out of doors in the frost and snow, Alice Ambrose's clothes
being frozen hard as boards.... It was observable that those constables,
though wicked enough of themselves, were animated by a ruling elder of
their church, whose name corresponded not with his actions, for he was
called Hate-evil Nutter, he put those men forward, and by his presence
encouraged them." [Footnote: Besse, ii. 228.]
Subsequently, Mary Tomkins committed the breach of the peace complained
of, which was an interruption of a sermon against Quaker preaching.
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