Hope Leslie: Volume 2, Chapter 7 Summary & Analysis

The previous Saturday night, after Sir Philip Gardiner walked Mrs. Grafton home, he saw Hope going into the cemetery. He hid in the bushes and witnessed Hope’s meeting with Magawisca. Sir Philip also knows of the rumors about plotting among the American Indians; so when he hears Magawisca planning to meet with Hope in secret, he realizes he might have access to information valuable to the state—and also a means by which to curry the Governor’s favor. He also hopes that, if he helps take Faith captive, he’ll gain Hope’s favor as well.

So, on Monday, Sir Philip had met secretly with the town magistrates, reporting what he’d seen in the cemetery. Unfortunately, around the same time, information reached the Governor about a renegade who’d deserted Miantunnomoh and betrayed him to the Governor, claiming that Mononotto and Magawisca had stirred Miantunnomoh to hostility against the English. Mononotto, the man claimed, is gathering a confederation of chiefs to move against the English. Some of the man’s claims are exaggerations, and the Governor proceeds warily.

Miantunnomoh has always shown himself to be a good friend of the English, so Governor Winthrop hopes that by capturing Magawisca’s family, he will be able to learn the truth about the supposed conspiracy. This explains why Magawisca was received so sternly by the Governor, and why the Governor and his fellow magistrates see Sir Philip as a sign of God’s providence.

At the Winthrops’ house, everyone is in a flutter over the reappearance of the despairing Faith Leslie and the retrieval of Hope. Hope has a delirious fever and seems to be near death. For three days, she remains unconscious, Esther and Everell faithfully watching over her. Finally, on the fourth day, Hope’s fever breaks, and she sleeps peacefully. As Esther sits at her friend’s bedside, she can’t help fretting about Everell’s evident worry and affection for Hope. She rebukes herself for this, accidentally knocking over a table of medicines in her agitation. At the noise, Everell comes in, and Hope awakens at the same time. She is lucid, and she begins to cry from relief. Everell praises Esther’s nursing skill and kisses Hope’s hand before Esther ushers him out and sits down to talk with Hope. When Hope asks, Esther assures her that Magawisca is fine, and Hope goes back to sleep.

The next evening, Sir Philip Gardiner goes to the town jail with a letter of admittance from the Governor. He is duly admitted by the jailkeeper, Barnaby Tuttle. Sir Philip observes that Barnaby is an unlikely prison guard—short, pale, and meek. Barnaby explains that he has held this position for six years and has seldom had to deal with violent criminals; most of the prisoners are those convicted of holding “divers errors of opinions” or of committing “sins […] named at length in the Levitical law.”

Barnaby Tuttle leads Sir Philip into the jail. When Tuttle explains that Morton’s cell is adjacent to Magawisca’s, Sir Philip asks if he might offer her a word of exhortation. Tuttle grants permission, telling Sir Philip to ring a bell when he’s ready to leave. He also warns Sir Philip that Morton is crazy. He locks the knight into the cell, where Sir Philip finds Magawisca pacing. He says he’s surprised that Everell hasn’t rescued her yet, given how much she’s done for him. But instead he’s doting on Hope Leslie. Magawisca thinks this means her father must have been captured, but Sir Philip swears on a crucifix that Mononotto and Oneco have escaped.

Sir Philip gets to the point of his visit, pulling a rope-ladder, file, and wrench from within his cloak. He shows her how to use the tools and tells her to cut the window-bars at midnight the next day; a boat will be waiting for her. When Magawisca asks how she can repay him, Sir Philip asks her to take along a certain young lady, disguised as a male page, when she flees Boston. True, Rosa would not go willingly, but perhaps she could be traded with Faith Leslie to become Oneco’s wife, or taken to a Catholic priest in the western forest.

To these proposals, Magawisca scoffs that she will not “make my heart as black as thine” in order to save her life. Sir Philip feels chastened by Magawisca’s lofty purity. He is about to leave when he decides that he should look in on Morton for a moment. He is shocked to find the old man huddled in a corner of his cell, dirty and bedraggled. Suddenly, Morton springs on Sir Philip, locks him inside the cell, and throws the key out the window.

Meanwhile, Magawisca hears a sound outside her prison window and sees a ladder resting against the outside wall. Over Sir Philip’s sudden screams in the next room, she hears Digby, on the ground below, imploring Everell to come down. Filled with joy, Magawisca sees Everell appear at her window—“he is true!” she thinks. Everell determinedly saws at the bars while Digby frets and the men in the neighboring cell wrestle and shriek. Finally, Digby warns Everell that if he’s caught now, Magawisca will never be free, and Everell, with great reluctance, abandons his attempt. Magawisca is nevertheless happy.

Barnaby Tuttle finally arrives to free Sir Philip from his predicament—Morton has been trying to suffocate the knight by stuffing a cloak into his mouth. Sir Philip shakes Tuttle and swears at Magawisca for failing to help him; she just looks at him with disdain. Tuttle is horrified and scolds Sir Philip for his profanity; Sir Philip remembers his disguise as a pious Puritan just in time. Even though he scorns Tuttle’s “ignorance and fanaticism,” he feels shamed by the man’s genuine goodness, especially next to his own hypocrisy.

The narrator gives a few details of Sir Philip’s victim, Rosa. She is the illegitimate child of an English nobleman and a French actress. Orphaned, Rosa spent time in a convent, then under the care of her father’s rich sister, Lady Lunford, who tyrannized over her. While visiting Lady Lunford, Sir Philip fell for young Rosa. Lady Lunford was tired of the girl and let Sir Philip take her; he, too, gradually wearied of her. Knowing Rosa has confided in Hope Leslie, he longs to rid himself of her in some way.

The narrator closes the chapter with the admonition that anyone who doesn’t understand true happiness should simply compare the worldly Sir Philip and the imprisoned Magawisca.