October, 1659, they were condemned to death, and three days later they were led to execution. Mary Dyer, after seeing her two brethren die before her eyes, was at the last moment, as she stood upon the scaffold with the rope about her neck, reprieved. She was taken home to Rhode Island; but the spirit again moved her to return to the "bloody town of Boston," where she arrived in the spring of 1660. This determination of an old and feeble woman to brave all the terrors of their laws might well fill the mag istrates with astonishment; but they had already gone so far that it was now impos sible for them to recede. The executions which had already taken place had caused much unfavorable comment, and it was hoped that the condemned would consent to depart from the jurisdiction. When Mary Dyer was sent for by the court after her return, Governor Endicott said to her : "Are you the same Mary Dyer that was here before? " thus giving her an oppor tunity to escape by a denial of the fact. But she would make no evasion. " I am the same Mary Dyer that was here the last General Court." " You will own yourself a Quaker, will you not? " " I own myself to be reproachfully called so; " and she was sentenced to be hanged on the morning of the next day. " This is no more than thou saidst before," was her reply. " But now," said the Governor, " it is to be executed; therefore prepare yourself, for to-morrow at nine o'clock you die." " I came," she said, "in obedience to the will of God, to the last General Court, desiring you to repeal your unrighteous laws of banishment on pain of death; and the same is my work now, and earnest request, although I told you if you refused to repeal them, the Lord would send others of his servants to witness against them." At the appointed time on the next day, she was brought forth, and with a band of soldiers led through the town about a mile to the place of execution, the drums beating before and behind her the whole way.
When she was upon the gallows, it was told her that if she would return home she might come down and save her life; to which she replied, " Nay, I cannot; for in obedience to the will of the Lord I came, and in his will I abide faithful unto the death." Another said that she had been there before; she had the sentence of banishment upon pain of death, and had broken the law in coming again now, and therefore she was guilty of her own blood. "Nay," she answered; " I came to keep blood-guiltiness from you, desiring you to repeal the unrighteous and unjust law of banishment upon pain of death, made against the innocent servants of the Lord; therefore my blood will be required at your hands who wilfully do it; but for those who do it in the simplicity of their hearts, I desire the Lord to forgive them. I came to do the will of my Father, and in obedience to his will I stand even to death." A minister who was present then said : " Mary Dyer, repent, oh, repent, and be not so deluded and car ried away by the deceit of the devil! " But she answered, " Nay, man, I am not now to repent." She was then asked to have the elders pray for her; but she said, " I know never an elder here." She added that she desired the prayers of all the people of God. "Perhaps," said one, scoffingly, " she thinks there is none here." Then looking round, she said, " I know but few here." She then spoke of the other world and of the eternal happiness into which she was about to enter; and, " in this well-disposed condition was turned off and died a martyr of Christ, being twice led to death, which the first time she expected with undaunted courage, and now suffered with Christian fortitude." " She hangs as a flag for others to take example by," said a member of the court, as the life less body hung suspended from the gallows. As Mary Dyer had prophesied, the Lord sent others of his servants to testify against these wicked laws. Shortly after her death another Quaker named William Leddra made his appearance, and after a long im
