... He spake
well save that his blubbering &c interrupted him, and all along he
discovered a broken and melting heart and gave good exhortations to
take heed of such vanities and beginnings of evil as had occasioned his
fall; and in the end he earnestly and humbly besought the church to
have compassion of him and to deliver him out of the hands of Satan."
What a picture! what a story! "Of all tales 'tis the saddest--and more sad
because it makes us smile."
Captain John Underhill was a brave though somewhat bumptious soldier, who
had fought under the Prince of Orange in the War of the Netherlands, and
had been employed as temporal drill-master in the church-militant in New
England. He did good service for the colonists in the war with the Pequot
Indians, and indeed wherever there was any fighting to be done. "He thrust
about and justled into fame" He also managed to have apparently a very good
time in the new land, both in sinning and repenting. When he stood up on
the church-seat before the horrified, yet wide-open eyes of pious Boston
folk, in his studiously and theatrically disarranged garments, and
blubbered out his whining yet vain-glorious repentance, he doubtless acted
his part well, for he had twice before been through the same performance,
supplementing his second rehearsal by kneeling down before an injured
husband in the congregation, and asking earthly forgiveness.
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