Tales and Sketches | Page 7

boughs on the river-side were suddenly parted, and a tall man
sprang into the path before her. Shrinking back with terror, she uttered
a faint scream.
"Mary Edmands!" said the stranger, "do not fear me."
A thousand thoughts wildly chased each other through the mind of the
astonished girl. That familiar voice--that knowledge of her name--that
tall and well-remembered form! She leaned eagerly forward, and
looked into the stranger's face. A straggling gleam of moonshine fell
across its dark features of manly beauty.
"Richard Martin! can it be possible!"
"Yea, Mary," answered the other, "I have followed thee to the new
world, in that love which neither sea nor land can abate. For many
weary months I have waited earnestly for such a meeting as this, and, in
that time, I have been in many and grievous perils by the flood and the
wilderness, and by the heathen Indians and more heathen persecutors
among my own people. But I may not tarry, nor delay to tell my errand.
Mary, thou knowest my love; wilt thou be my wife?"
Mary hesitated.
"I ask thee again, if thou wilt share the fortunes of one who hath loved
thee ever since thou wast but a child, playing under the cottage trees in
old Haverhill, and who hath sacrificed his worldly estate, and perilled
his soul's salvation for thy sake. Mary, dear Mary, for of a truth thou art
very dear to me; wilt thou go with me and be my wife?"
The tones of Richard Martin, usually harsh and forbidding, now fell
soft and musical on the ear of Mary. He was her first love, her only one.
What marvel that she consented?
"Let us hasten to depart," said Martin, "this is no place for me. We will
go to the Providence plantations. Passaconaway will assist us in our
journey."
The bright flush of hope and joy faded from the face of the young girl.

She started back from the embrace of her lover.
"What mean you, Richard? What was 't you said about our going to that
sink of wickedness at Providence? Why don't you go back with me to
sister Ward's?"
"Mary Edmands!" said Martin, in a tone of solemn sternness, "it is
fitting that I should tell thee all. I have renounced the evil doctrines of
thy brother-in-law, and his brethren in false prophecy. It was a hard
struggle, Mary; the spirit was indeed willing, but the flesh was weak,
exceeding weak, for I thought of thee, Mary, and of thy friends. But I
had a measure of strength given me, whereby I have been enabled to do
the work which was appointed me."
"Oh, Richard!" said Mary, bursting into tears, "I'm afraid you have
become a Williamsite, one of them, who, Mr. Ward says, have nothing
to hope for in this world or in that to come."
"The Lord rebuke him!" said Martin, with a loud voice. "Woe to such
as speak evil of the witnesses of the truth. I have seen the utter
nakedness of the land of carnal professors, and I have obeyed the call to
come out from among them and be separate. I belong to that persecuted
family whom the proud priests and rulers of this colony have driven
from their borders. I was brought, with many others, before the wicked
magistrates of Boston, and sentenced to labor, without hire, for the
ungodly. But I have escaped from my bonds; and the Lord has raised
up a friend for his servant, even the Indian Passaconaway, whose son I
assisted, but a little time ago, to escape from his captors."
"Can it be?" sobbed Mary, "can it be? Richard, our own Richard,
following the tribe of Gorton, the Familist! Oh, Richard, if you love me,
if you love God's people and his true worship, do come away from
those wicked fanatics."
"Thou art in the very gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity,"
answered Martin. "Listen, Mary Edmands, to the creed of those whom
thou callest fanatics. We believe in Christ, but not in man-worship. The
Christ we reverence is the shadow or image of God in man; he was
crucified in Adam of old, and hath been crucified in all men since; his
birth, his passion, and his death, were but manifestations or figures of
his sufferings in Adam and his descendants. Faith and Christ are the
same, the spiritual image of God in the heart. We acknowledge no rule
but this Christ, this faith within us, either in temporal or spiritual things.

And the Lord hath blessed us, and will bless us, and truth shall be
magnified and exalted in us; and the children of the heathen shall be
brought to know and partake of this great redemption whereof we
testify. But woe to the