These agents of the king at once started on their mission of death.  They had no difficulty in tracing the fugitives to New Haven.  One person went so far as to tell them that the men they sought were secreted in Mr. Davenport’s house.  Stopping at Guilford, they showed their warrant to Mr. Leete, the deputy-governor, and demanded horses for their journey, and aid and power to search for and apprehend the fugitives.

Deputy Leete had little heart for this task.  He knew very well where the fugitives were, but managed to make such excuses and find so many reasons for delay that the agents, who arrived on Saturday, were detained until Sunday, and then, as this was Puritan New England, could not get away till Monday.  Meanwhile a secret messenger was on his way to New Haven, to warn the fugitives of their danger.  On hearing this startling news they hastily removed from their hiding-place in Mr. Davenport’s house, and were taken to a secluded mill two miles away.

The royal messengers reached New Haven and demanded the assistance of the authorities in their search.  They failed to get it.  Every obstacle was thrown in their way.  They equally failed to find any trace of the fugitives, though the latter did not leave the immediate vicinity of the town.  After two days at the mill they were taken to a hiding-place at a spot called Hatchet Harbor, and soon afterwards, finding this place too exposed, they removed to a cavern-like covert in a heap of large stones, near the summit of West Rock, not far from the town.  Here they remained in hiding for several months, being supplied with food from a lonely farm-house in the neighborhood.

The royal agents, finding their search fruitless and their efforts to get aid from the magistrates vexatiously baffled, at length returned to Boston, where they told a bitter story of the obstinate and pertinacious contempt of his Majesty’s orders displayed by these New Haven worthies.  The chase thus given up, the fugitives found shelter in a house in Milford, where they dwelt in seclusion for two years.

But danger returned.  The king demanded blood-revenge for his father’s death.  Commissioners from England reached Boston, armed with extraordinary powers of search.  The pursuit was renewed with greater energy than before.  The fugitives, finding the danger imminent, and fearing to bring their protectors into trouble, returned to their cave.  Here they lay for some time in security, while the surrounding country was being actively scoured by parties of search.  On one occasion, when out of their place of shelter, they were so nearly overtaken that they only escaped by hiding under a bridge.  This was what is known as Neck Bridge, over Mill River.  As they sat beneath it they heard above them the hoof-beats of their pursuers’ horses on the bridge.  The sleuth-hounds of the law passed on without dreaming how nearly their victims had been within their reach.  This was not the only narrow escape of the fugitives.  Several times they were in imminent danger of capture, yet fortune always came to their aid.