<div><B>Off with Their Heads or Burned at the Stake?</B><BR><BR>Door numbers 1 and 2 offered a bleak end for the Puritans. Door number 3, however, showed glimpses of hope: a new land, free of religious persecution.<br><BR>But fleeing the country would be an act of sedition.<br><BR>Contrary to popular belief that they were stuffy and dour, the sport-loving and well-dressed Pilgrims who braved tumultuous waters?literally and figuratively?for New World freedom had a zest for life.<BR><BR>Yet life abroad would bring harsh winters, Indian attacks, starvation, and disease. Was it worth the risk?<BR><BR>A hundred brave souls risked life and limb to leave King James I’s tyranny?the legacy of the Virgin Queen’s not so ?Golden Age”?for greener grasses. Along the way they instituted the Mayflower Compact, founded the colony at Plymouth, and overcame impossible odds (including losing half of their number to plague and smallpox during their first winter) to survive.<BR><BR>Follow their journey in <I>The Pilgrim Chronicles: An Eyewitness History of the Pilgrims and the Founding of Plymouth Colony.<BR></div>