A divine prompting, which he claimed had brought him here, might
also release him from bearing any further testimony." — The Puritan
Age and Rule, p. 472. The interpretation here suggested seems to me
the true one. It will be observed that Christison does not promise to
go away and never return ; he says that he has " freedom to depart,"
i. e., the Divine Light allows him to do so, and he does not know that
it will ever again command him to return. Since he had discharged
his duty in denouncing the murder of Leddra, his conscience allowed
him to leave Massachusetts, and he could not say whether it would in
future" bring him back again or not. Such seems to me the plain mean-
ing of his words, and doubtless the magistrates so understood it, but
were (all except Endicott) glad of an excuse for letting the prisoner go.
In point of fact Christison did afterward return to Boston. See Hallo-
well, The Quaker Invasion of Massachusetts, p. 61.
2l8



THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ENGLAND




The

" King's
Missive '



oppressed Quakers in New England. In the course of the
following year he sent a letter to Endicott and the
other New England governors, ordering them to
suspend proceedings against the Quakers, and if
any were then in prison, to send them to England for trial.
Christison's victory had already been won, but the " King's
Missive " was now partially obdyed by the release of all
prisoners. As for sending anybody to England for trial,



THE NEW ENGLAND CONFEDERACY' 219

that was something that no New England government could
ever be made to allow.
