Public sentiment in Boston was now turning so strongly against the magistrates that they began to weaken in their purpose.  But there was one more victim.  In November, 1660, William Leddra returned from banishment.  The case was clear enough, but he was kept in prison four months and every effort was made to induce him to promise to leave the colony, but in vain.  In the following March he too was put to death.  A few days before the execution, as Leddra was being questioned in court, a memorable scene occurred.  Wenlock Christison was one of those who had been banished under penalty of death.  On his return he made straight for the town-house, strode into the court-room, and with uplifted finger addressed the judges in words of authority.  “I am come here to warn you,” said he, “that ye shed no more innocent blood.”  He was instantly seized and dragged off to jail.  After three months he was brought to trial before the Court of Assistants.  The magistrates debated for more than a fortnight as to what should be done.  The air was thick with mutterings of insurrection, and they had lost all heart for their dreadful work.  Not so the savage old man who presided, frowning gloomily under his black skull cap.  Losing his patience at last, Endicott smote the table with fury, upbraided the judges for their weakness, and declared himself so disgusted that he was ready to go back to England. [27] “You that will not consent, record it,” he shouted, as the question was again put to vote, “I thank God I am not afraid to give judgment.”  Christison was condemned to death, but the sentence was never executed.  In the interval the legislature assembled, and the law was modified.  The martyrs had not died in vain.  Their cause was victorious.  A revolution had been effected.  The Puritan ideal of a commonwealth composed of a united body of believers was broken down, never again to be restored.  The principle had been admitted that the heretic might come to Massachusetts and stay there.

It was not in a moment, however, that these results were fully realized.  For some years longer Quakers were fined, imprisoned, and now and then tied to the cart’s tail and whipped from one town to another.  But these acts of persecution came to be more and more discountenanced by public opinion until at length they ceased.

It was on the 25th of May, 1660, just one week before the martyrdom of Mary Dyer, that Charles II. returned to England to occupy his father’s throne.  One of the first papers laid before him was a memorial in behalf of the 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 obeyed by the release of all prisoners.  As for sending anybody to England for trial, that was something that no New England government could ever be made to allow.