Chapter Twenty-Three Summary

Bess and Will, still aboard Toby's boat, are afraid to disembark at any city for fear of arrest. Baxter's letter has told them that if they return to New Amsterdam they might find something to their benefit, but Bess thinks it is a trick. At the door of the governor's mansion, she gives up all hope.

They are graciously received at Stuyvesant's mansion by his wife, Judy, who interrupts the governor to plead for the couple. The governor, who wants to stay on friendly terms with Jack Winthrop, has already written a document reinstating their land to them, and giving Bess permission to marry Will. The two are married the next day in a church by the Governor's minister, with Toby Feake and George Baxter in attendance. The governor had not been told of recent persecutions in other colonies, or he...