Page:Early English adventurers in the East (1917).djvu/283

 the dinner table in the factory, Nathaniel Foxcroft gave utterance to the proposition that no king had any right to his throne except that conferred by might and that a private man's interest came before that of the sovereign. Rank treason this seemed to the Royalist factors, whose loyalty had probably taken a deeper shade from the incidents in which most of them had participated before leaving England. Perhaps, too, they felt that if there was to be a struggle it would be as well to have it on this issue which would enlist for them sympathy at home. They were, at all events, prompt to take advantage of the Agent's indiscretion. With Winter as leader they decided upon a course of action which was virtually a coup d'etat.

The first move in the game was a denunciation of the Foxcrofts as traitors to the two independent members of the Council—Jeremy Samebrooke and William Dawes. These worthies when pressed to accept a formal charge declined to take action on the ground that the Agent could not properly be impugned. Failing a legal means of securing the downfall of intruders the conspirators resorted to open violence. With Chuseman, the Captain of the garrison, on their side, the execution of their plans was easy.

Selecting their time well they delivered their blow on Saturday morning at the hour for prayers. George Foxcroft, hearing that trouble was brewing, drew his rapier and in the company of Samebrooke and Dawes, rushed downstairs to the courtyard, where the soldiers were drawn up fully armed with their pistols ready to fire. He was met with cries of "For the King! For the King! Knock them down! Fire!" He advanced and commenced to expostulate, when Chuseman rushed at him and having fired his pistol without effect closed with the Agent and threw him