[CHAPTER VIII.]
CONCLUSION.
THE six months' imprisonment to which Master Drayton the hatter had been condemned came to an end at last, but not before his health had become so greatly impaired by the close confinement and impure air of the prison that the doctor greatly feared he would never be strong again, more especially as he would now be known as a Quaker, and consequently watched and harassed by the authorities upon the smallest provocation.
The thought of this and the sight of her husband's pale worn face soon overcame Dame Drayton's reluctance to give up her home and friends in England, and join the band of Quakers who were soon to sail for New Jersey in His Majesty's plantations of America.
This year 1677 was likely to be one of blessed memory in the history of the Society of Friends, for Sir William Penn had carried into practical effect the dream of Master Drayton, and had spent a portion of his wealth in the purchase of land upon which his poor persecuted friends could settle, and worship God according to the dictates of their conscience, none daring to make them afraid.
Bessie's father had been despatched with a party of convicts to the older settlement of Massachusetts; but as Quakers were persecuted almost as bitterly at Boston as in London, an agent had been sent by Sir William to buy the prisoner at the auction of the convicts, which would take place as soon as the vessel arrived.
Westland was a more robust man than his friend the hatter, and, thanks to the care of Friends outside the prison, he had not suffered so severely as the London tradesman.
The lax rules of the prison had given Westland an opportunity of preaching the gospel to the prisoners confined with him, and though many mocked and jeered at his warnings, a few were impressed with the earnestness of his faith; and this was so great a comfort to his ardent soul that he forgot the discomfort of his surroundings in the joy of knowing he had been the means of awakening some souls from the night and sleep of sin, to seek the Saviour who could give to them a new and better life.
As it had been decreed that his wife must remain in Bridewell until he could earn the money to pay her passage to the plantations, it was at first feared that she would have to remain in prison for a much longer time than her husband; but although Sir William Penn was known to be an obstinate Quaker, many about the Court who had known his father were willing to do him a favour, in the hope of drawing him back to what they deemed was his rightful position in society; and by the interest of some of these it was at last arranged that Bessie's mother should be released when the party of Friends were ready to sail from Gravesend.