Chapter 2

I'm being tricked! I say I will have that charter. It's somewhere here, and I'll have it. [_calling_] Colonel Bligh!

BLIGH [_distance_]

Yes, sir!

ANDROS

Surround this place with your soldiers. Don't let a single man leave until he has been searched!

TREAT

Sir, this is illegal! You have no search warrants!

ANDROS

Indeed! I'll do it whether it's legal or not. I'll have that charter, I tell you, if I have to search every spot in this town! I'll have it, I say I'll have it.

ANNOUNCER

And so the great search began. All that night and into the next day the Governor, the Colonel, and their soldiers searched high and low for the missing charter. At last they came to the house of Charles Willys, in front of which stood the great oak in which the charter lay safely hidden.

ANDROS

Who lives here?

TREAT

This is the home of Charles Willys!

ANDROS

Indeed! One of the Charter Committee, eh?

TREAT

Yes, sir!

ANDROS

Good! Search this place inside and out, Colonel. Don't leave a thing unturned.

BLIGH

Very good, sir! Search this place, Captain--thoroughly. Tear up the floors, dig up the garden, rip the upholstery off the furniture, but find that charter!

VOICE

Yes, sir. Follow me!

ANDROS

Bring out the master of the house. The rest of you back up against this tree and don't move!

TREAT

Sir, I protest again--

ANDROS

Protest all you like. It will do you no good until you produce that charter.

TREAT

I don't know where it is. You had it, that's all I know. If you lost it, it is not our fault.

ANDROS

Silence!

BLIGH [_a little distance_]

Here's the master of the house, sir.

ANDROS

Ah, indeed! Are you Master Willys?

WILLYS

I am.

ANDROS

Where is the charter?

WILLYS

Your pardon, sir, but how should I know?

ANDROS

You were a member of the Charter Committee, were you not?

WILLYS

I was!

ANDROS

Then where is it?

WILLYS

I am informed that the charter--

ANDROS

Yes?

WILLYS

Was placed--

ANDROS

Yes--yes--

WILLYS

In your hands!

ANDROS

Sir! If you don't tell me where that charter is--

WILLYS

What then, sir?

ANDROS

Do you see this oak tree?

WILLYS

I'm not blind, sir.

ANDROS

I'll have you strung up--strung up in it, sir; I'll have you strung up in it!

WILLYS

I should hate to have such a fine tree perverted to such a purpose, sir!

ANDROS

Ah! You would! Colonel Bligh! Colonel!

BLIGH [_distance_]

Yes, Governor!

ANDROS

Send me half a dozen soldiers and a stout rope!

BLIGH

Yes, sir!

ANDROS

Ah! Now perhaps we'll get something from you. Will you tell me or will you be hanged by your thumbs from that stout limb up there until you are ready to tell me where the charter is?

TREAT

Governor Andros, I fear you have forgotten yourself in your rage. Master Willys is entitled to a trial before any such punishment can be meted out to him.

ANDROS

Silence, or I'll have you strung up with him! Gad, sir, I'll fill this oak tree with stiff-necked rebellious Connecticut men, but I'll have that charter!

BLIGH

Here are your men, sir!

ANDROS

Good! One of you climb that oak tree. Here, you, Sergeant.

VOICE

Yes, sir!

ANDROS

Give him a hand there. [_sound of starting to climb the tree_] Have the men found anything in the house, Colonel?

BLIGH

Not a thing, sir!

WADSWORTH

Look here, sir.

ANDROS

Ah, Captain Wadsworth. Have you something to say?

WADSWORTH

I have, sir.

ANDROS

Speak out.

WADSWORTH

Tell those men to stay out of that tree and I'll tell you.

ANDROS

All right, Sergeant, come down. I thought we'd get something out of them if we scared them. Well, Captain?

WADSWORTH

Sir, you have lost the charter; that is clear.

ANDROS

Where is it?

WADSWORTH

Just a minute. You have lost it. You also have given us your receipt for it; therefore you should have it.

ANDROS

And I intend to have it.

WADSWORTH

You can't. I can assure you of that, but here is what I propose. The committee is willing to turn over the receipt to you if you will stop this foolish and destructive search for something you can't find.

ANDROS

Never! Sergeant, go up that tree again. We'll string these fellows up.

WADSWORTH

Ah, very well, then. But, sir, you'll look very foolish when you report to the Privy Council that you did not get the charter, and we produce your signed receipt!

ANDROS

What?--Hm--

TREAT

Yes, indeed, Governor. How will you explain that to the King?

ANDROS

What? Why! Ah--very well then, give me the receipt and I'll leave. After all, your charter will do you no good. It's revoked.

TREAT

Exactly! That's a very sensible view to take, Governor Andros. I congratulate you.

WADSWORTH

Here is the receipt, sir.

ANDROS

Humph!

WADSWORTH

You're very welcome, sir.

ANDROS

Colonel Bligh, draw up your guard and prepare to return to Boston. [_orders and confusion_]

TREAT [_over the noise_]

My congratulations, Captain Wadsworth. A good bargain.

WADSWORTH

Indeed it was. Another foot up the tree, and the Sergeant would have had the charter.

BLIGH

Quick step, march!

ANNOUNCER

By saving the charter Connecticut preserved her claim to separate government, and in 1694 the King decided that the charter was in full legal force. It served as the fundamental order of Connecticut government down to the Revolution and until 1818, when a new state constitution superseded it.

The oak in which the charter was so well hidden was called from that time the "Charter Oak." It stood until August 21, 1856, when it fell. At sunset of that day the bells of Hartford tolled, and mourning was displayed for the historic old tree. And today interested tourists may see the spot where the Charter Oak stood and see a piece of the old tree in the State House.