unhappy life went out in the fire and blood of an Indian massacre.

To the Puritans in Boston, such fate seemed justice, and they
rejoiced with a grim exultation. "The Lord," said Welde, "heard
our groans to heaven, and freed us from our great and sore
affliction." No tale was too gross and shameless to find
acceptance, and popular feeling against her settled into such
fixed enmity that even her descendant, the historian Hutchinson,
dared not write anything that would seem to favor her cause. Yet,
necessary as her persecution and banishment may have been to the
safety of the Colony, the faith for which she gave her life has
been stronger than her enemies. Mistaken as she often was, a truer
Christianity dwelt with her than with them, and the toleration
denied her has shown itself as the heart of all present life or
future progress.




CHAPTER VII.

COLONIAL LITERARY DEVELOPMENT IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.


It was before the final charge from Ipswich to Andover, that the
chief part of Anne Bradstreet's literary work was done, the ten
years after her arrival in New England being the only fruitful
ones. As daughter and wife of two of the chief magistrates, she
heard the constant discussion of questions of policy as well as
questions of faith, both strongly agitated by the stormy years of