sail him he will make war on them, with or without authority, "commission or no commission."

The hour was at hand when this resolution of Bacon's was to be tested. Suddenly intelligence reached him (May, 1676) that the Indians had attacked his estate at the Falls, killed his overseer and one of his servants, and were going to carry fire and hatchet through the frontier. The planters ran to arms, and hastened from house to house to combine against these dangerous enemies. All was confusion, and the chronicle sums up the chief difficulty, they were "without a head." Who was to lead them? It was a serious question, since it was doubtful if Governor Berkeley would commission anybody. But the Indians were still ravaging the country; a crowd of armed horsemen had assembled; and Bacon was clamorously called to take command. His energy was well known, and the savages had attacked his lands; so he was offered the leadership, and at once accepted it. He made a speech full of "bold and vehement spirit," which one of the old historians is obliging enough to reconstruct for us from his imagination; enlarged on "the grievances of the times," an ominous indication of coming events; and making publication of the cause of the assemblage, sent to Governor Berkeley asking for a commission.

Thus, all things up to this moment were done decently and in order. They would await Sir William's reply, -to govern themselves accordingly or not. It came promptly. Berkeley did not refuse the commission, but, what amounted to the same thing, he did not send it. Mr. Bacon was notified in a "polite and complimentary" manner that the times were troubled; that the issue of his business might be dangerous; that, unhappily, the

character and the fortunes of Mr. Bacon might become imperiled if he proceeded. The commission was thus refused, and the Governor's action is concisely explained by the old writers. He "doubted Bacon's temper, as he appeared popularly inclined, a constitution not consistent with the times or the people's dispositions." This was the real explanation; the complimentary expressions went for nothing; "the veil was too thin to impose on Mr. Bacon." He was at the head of a force, "most good housekeepers, well armed;" the Indians were still ravaging; and having sent another messenger to Jamestown to thank the Governor for the promised commission, Bacon set out at the head of his well-armed housekeepers to attack the Indians.

Thus the game had begun between the man of twenty-eight and the man of seventy, the popular leader and the representative of the King. The old Cavalier attempted to end it by striking a sudden blow at his adversary. Bacon and his men were marching through the woods of Charles City, when an emissary of the Governor's came in hot haste with a proclamation. Nathaniel Bacon, Jr., and his deluded followers were denounced as rebels, and ordered to disperse. If they persisted in their illegal proceedings, it would be at their peril. The blow shook the resolutions of some of the armed housekeepers, and "those of estates obeyed." The number of these falterers is not known, since Bacon's force is not. In the discordant chronicles it is estimated at from seventy to three hundred. The last number is improbable; if it was the true number, the proportion of faint-hearted was immense. If the force was seventy, it was small, since fifty-seven horsemen remained steadfast.

At the head of this force, Bacon advanced rapidly on the Falls, and found the Indians intrenched on a hill east of the present city of Richmond. A parley ensued, and the attack was delayed, but a shot was fired from Bacon's rear, which was followed by an assault on the hill. The Virginians "waded shoulder deep" through a stream in front; stormed and set fire to the Indian stockade, blew up four thousand pounds of powder, which the savages had in some manner come into possession of; and completely routed them, killing one hundred and fifty, with a loss of only three of their own party. This was the famous "Battle of Bloody Run; so called, it is said from the fact that the blood of the Indians ran down into the stream beneath the hill. The historians fight over the event as Bacon fought over the palisade : one maintaining that he only fought here afterwards, and others that he never fought here at all, since this was the scene of the Ricahecrian combat. It is not very important, but the statement of Bacon himself, a week or two afterwards, seems to settle the controversy.

The main point is that the Indians were routed and driven toward the mountains. The frontier was for the time safe from their further depredations, and General Bacon marched back at his leisure, "slowly" is the adjective used in the chronicle, - at the head of his well-armed housekeepers, toward lower James River, followed by a picturesque procession of "Indian captives." Such was the first act of the drama of Bacon's Rebellion, a fight that was to lead to more fighting. The curtain descended upon one scene, only to rise abruptly on the next.

XIV.

BACON'S ARREST.

SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY had not remained quiet during these audacious proceedings. He had been openly defied. Rebellion had suddenly burst forth in his good kingdom of Virginia, as it had burst forth in England against his royal master, thirty years before.

There was nothing to do but fight it, and the aged knight was not wanting in courage. He raised a force of horsemen, and set out from Jamestown in pursuit of Bacon; but suddenly news reached him that there were enemies in his rear. The alarming intelligence came that the whole lower country had risen in revolt. The news of Bacon's application for a commission and his subsequent proceedings had flown on the wings of the wind; the people rose to support him; and to meet this new danger, Berkeley countermarched his horsemen and hurried back to Jamestown.

Here he found all in tumult. The whole tier of counties along lower James River and the York were in rebellion. A civil war was imminent; and Sir William met it like a statesmen; that is to say, he did not defy it, but quietly controlled it. Were the border forts so great a subject of complaint? The said forts should be dismantled. Had the planters conceived the singular idea that the then Ilouse of Burgesses did not represent the people, since the same House had been continued by prorogation since 1660, and had become the Virginia Long Parliament? Well, the House should be dissolved and writs issued for a new election. He

kept all his promises. Orders were issued for dismantling the obnoxious forts, and the writs were at once

sent out.

Bacon, who had returned to his manor of Curles, was now going to repeat his defiance of the Governor. He offered himself as one of the candidates to represent Henrico in the Burgesses, and was "unanimously chosen," freedmen illegally voting for him along with the freeholders. In some of the counties freedmen were even elected Burgesses, which indicates the popular aversion to the restriction of suffrage.

The Burgesses were to meet early in June, for the necessity of their assemblage was urgent. The members hurried to the capital on horseback, fording the bridgeless streams, or in their "sloops," like the member from distant Stafford County, Mr. "T. M.," who afterwards wrote a stirring narrative of what followed. Bacon also came in his sloop. Embarking at Curles with "about thirty gentlemen besides," who had been prominent in the up-country rising, he sailed down James River, and arrived at Jamestown. Bad fortune awaited him. His presence as a Burgess was an open defiance. The cannon of a ship lying at anchor in front of the capital were trained on his sloop, and the high sheriff, who was in the ship, sent an order to Bacon to come on board. Another account says that his sloop was "shot at and forced to fly up the river," when he was pursued and taken prisoner; but this is less reliable. In either case, he was arrested, with his companions, some of whom were put in irons; and the

1 It is the statement of the Breviarie and Conclusion," but that was written from hearsay. "T. M." of Stafford was present at Jamestown when Bacon was arrested.