A Midnight Escape
The town buzzed with tension. Lanterns flickered in the chill air as guards moved in lockstep, their shadows swaying along the path to the governor’s residence. Their mission was clear, and they marched with purpose down the narrow streets of the Massachusetts Bay settlement. But ahead of them, a lone pageboy slipped through the night, clutching a sealed parchment from Governor John Winthrop himself. He was running a crucial, clandestine errand, a covert lifeline that few would understand—and the guards following in his wake certainly didn’t.