Midwinter reigned; and Salem’s infant town, Where late were cleft the forests’ skirts away, Showed its low roofs, and, from their thatching brown Sheeted with ice, sent back the sun’s last ray; The school-boys left the slippery hillock’s crown, So keen the blast came o’er the eastern bay; And pale in vapors thick the sun went down, And the glassed forest cast a sombre frown. IV. The busy house-wife guarded well the door, That night, against the gathering winter storm-- Did well the walls of all the cot explore Where’er the snow-gust might a passage form; And to the couch of age and childhood bore With anxious care the mantle thick and warm; And then of fuel gathered ample store, And bade the blaze up the rude chimney roar. V. That night sate Williams, with his children, by The blazing hearth--his consort at his side; And often did she heave the heavy sigh As still her task of needle-work she plied; And, from the lashes of her azure eye, Did often brush the starting tear aside; For they at Spring the savage wilds must try,-- ’Twas so decreed by ruthless bigotry. VI. Beside the good-man lay his Bible’s fair Broad open page upon the accustomed stand, And many a passage had he noted there, Of Israel wandering o’er the desert’s sand, And each assurance he had marked with care, Made by Jehovah, of the _promised land_; And from the sacred page had learned to dare The exile’s peril, and his ills to bear. VII. And, while the holy book he pondered o’er, And often told, to cheer his consort’s breast, How, for their faith, the blest apostles bore The exile’s wanderings and the dungeon’s pest, A heavy foot approached his humble door, And some one, opening, instant entrance prest: A well-known elder was he, strict and sour,-- Strong in a church ensphered in civil power. VIII. “I come,” he said in accents hard and stern, “The Governor’s and Council’s word to bear: They are convened, and hear, with deep concern, That thou abusest their indulgence fair; Ay, with resentment and abhorrence learn That still thou dost thy specious tenets share With visitors, who, smit therewith, discern Strange godliness in thee, and from us turn. IX. “Till spring we gave; and thou wast not to teach Thy interdicted doctrines here the while, But curb thy tongue, or with submissive speech The church regain, and quit thy errors vile; Of which condition thou committest breach, And dost her saints from Salem’s church beguile; And plan, ’tis said, to found in easy reach A State where Antichrist himself may preach. X.