Two old men, and, as he grew older, often accompanied them late at night down through the secret passage described by Mr. Judd in his history of Hadley, and out through the cellar to walk to the garden, which was protected by a high plank fence from casual observation. Here, as well as in their own room, he often listened to the warlike tales of one of them. The other had fallen into the weak and melancholy state known as second childhood. But Goffe retained until the very last much of the old vigor which had displayed itself with the Ironsides on many a hard-fought field. So that the boy, grown almost a young many by that time, was not surprised when the old warrior, who had spied the enemy through the aperture in his closed shutter, appeared so suddenly at the church to head the villagers against the savage enemy.
In after life the Rev. Samuel Russell spoke of Goffe as the most interesting narrator he had ever known, and a man whose influence over himself had been one of the greatest blessings of his life. These things only make one feel the more poignant regret for the fury of the Boston mob, which, in its wanton destruction of the library and papers of the Royalist Governor Hutchinson, about a century after the Regicides has taken refuge in Hadley, destroyed also, not guessing its nature or value, the diary of Goffe, which had fallen into Hutchinson's possession as a collector. Goffe had kept this diary during his exile, and it is believed to have contained not the monotonous history of wearisome days in which nothing occurred, but rather the reminiscences of a lifetime of action and association with the great men of his time. It will be remembered that Goffe was a son-in-law of Whalley, who was a brother-in-law of Cromwell.
The death of the last Regicide probably occurred in 1679 or 1680. Even then, so great was the fear of the resentment of the English government that, save in whispers, no mention was made of the presence in this country of the condemned fugitives until after the death of every person who had ventured to be helpful to them.
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