CHAPTER III.FOILED PURPOSES.
Increase Mathermet with a dignified and polite reception at the Court of the King, for Sir William Phipps, with all his influence and persuasiveness, prepared the way for the envoy extraordinary to approach the master of the colonies.
Sir William even constituted himself another champion of downtrodden Massachusetts, and added his importunities to those of Mather, to induce James to re-establish the rights and territory of the colony and to give it back its beloved charter.
“We love you much, Sir William,” said the King, with a firmness which was never to be shaken, “but we cannot accede to your wishes. Anything but this that you will ask shall be granted.”
Disappointed, but never disconcerted, Sir William conferred with Mather, whom he was obliged to assure that nothing that either of them could say to him now would beget an alteration of King James’s decision. Mather, persistent, suave and convinced of the justice of his cause, determined to remain in touch with the Court and the King’s retainers, until sheer patience and persistence should win what persuasion could not.
Phipps, knowing only too well the disposition of the King, when once his word was passed, determined thathe could do more for his country if present in the colony than he could by remaining in London. Reminding the King that he had already granted him any other favor than the restoration of the colony’s charter, he announced his desire to be appointed Sheriff of New England.
Regretting to lose the hearty Captain from his company, James nevertheless kept his word by complying with Sir William’s request. The appointment was duly made and confirmed. Leaving Mather behind him, Phipps returned to Boston and set about the administration of his new-made duties, with more ardor than cunning, with more honesty than diplomacy.
It is doubtful if William Phipps ever had a more aggravating experience, in all his adventures, with mutineers and pirates, than he underwent at the hands of Randolph and Governor Andros. He was not a man of finished education. Born in Maine, in a family of twenty-one children, he had been obliged to commence the round of shifting for himself at an early age. He had apprenticed himself to a ship-carpenter at eighteen and then had come to Boston four years later, when he went to work and taught himself to read and to write.
Hampered now, by this lack of early opportunities, insulted, and finding his most sincere efforts nullified and his plans constantly frustrated, by the delays and artifices of the council under Andros, he was made heartily sick of the whole situation.
His return to Boston, however, was not marked entirely by chagrin and discouragement. He had his wife with him, and herein lay the greatest happiness which ever came into his eventful life. He built herthe “fair brick house, in the Green Lane,” which he had promised, years before, and he endeared many of the staunch patriots, who beheld his efforts to help them, sadly, though with admiration.
Although Garde had never known how very intimate indeed had been the relations of Captain Phipps and Adam, yet she was aware that they had been much together. She had naturally learned, in common with all the inhabitants of Boston, that Sir William had found the treasure he had spent so many years in seeking, but she had never known that when she sent Adam away he had gone to Hispaniola to join the searching expedition. Therefore she was in ignorance of the fact that Adam was wealthy.
But, after all, she was only concerned with Adam’s present whereabouts, and the reasons why, after all these months and months of waiting—it being now two full years since that last tragic meeting—he had never relented sufficiently to write, or to send her a word.
As time had gone on, she had become more and more convinced, either that Adam intended never to forgive her, or that he had married some one else and therefore could not, in honor, think longer upon her. Her belief inclined toward the first explanation. She confessed that she had done him a great wrong, especially as she had never even so much as permitted him to deny the story of the Indian child, but she argued that had she been in his place and forgiveness had been so earnestly implored, she could not have had the heart to refuse.
It was the one little sad privilege left her, to make up her mind she would wait, till death, if need be,patiently, lovingly, till Adam should one day know she loved him and that she was keeping herself sacred for his claiming. And if he never did come to claim her, still she would love him. If death came to take her, she would go to death as a bride would go to church, to wait the coming of her love.
In the frame of mind which her vigil had begotten, fortified by her sense of maidenly pride and diffidence, it was utterly impossible for her to think of going either to Sir William Phipps, or to his wife, to ask for information concerning Adam. She was aware that the Captain doubtless knew of Adam’s whereabouts, his position in life and whether or not he was married, but if Adam chose to remain silent, disdainful and unforgiving, she would rather die than go to a stranger to ask about him, or to send him anything further, in the way of a word or a letter.
As a matter of fact, Garde had attempted to send another little letter, a year after the first one had gone, but it too had fallen into the clutches of Randolph. The creature had destroyed it, as containing nothing of importance to any of his machinations, for it merely asked the rover if he had received the first epistle.
Thus Garde’s golden opportunity slipped away unused, and her life narrowed down, more and more, to the simple duties of taking what care she could of the white-haired old man, her grandfather, who rubbed his thumb across the ends of his fingers endlessly, although he was slowly being restored to his old-time activity of mind and body.
Utterly disheartened, by the futility of his desires and efforts to serve his country in his capacity ofSheriff, Sir William Phipps was glad to receive a letter that came from Increase Mather, informing him that the time was drawing near for renewed labors to be attempted in England. Responding to this, he deserted his useless office and sailed for London in the midst of the winter season.
The opportunity of which Garde might have availed herself, to learn something of Adam, was gone. She knew not what she had done, or what she had lost.
Phipps came to England at a moment when epochs were fairly in the process of crystalization.
King James, the last of Britain’s Roman Catholic monarchs, had been obliged to abdicate his throne and to flee to Ireland for his life.