tachment of ffusileers (musketts not being then in use), who, with their cocks bent, presented their ffusils at a window of the Assembly Chamber filled with faces, repeating with menacing voices, We will have it! We will have it!' every half minute."

These words of the cotemporary narrative best describe the scene. One of the Burgesses of the Bacon party shook his handkerchief from the window, calling out three or four times, "You shall have it! You shall have it!" meaning the commission; and at this assurance the fusileers uncocked their guns, and waited for further orders from Bacon. He had followed the Governor with an "impetuous like delirious action," exclaiming violently :

"Damn my blood! I'll kill Governor, Council, Assembly and all, and then I'll sheathe my sword in my own heart's blood.”"

And it was afterwards said, we are told by Mr. T. M. of Stafford, that Bacon had ordered his men, if he drew his sword, to fire on the Assembly - "so near was the massacre of us all that very minute, had Bacon but drawn his sword before the pacific handkerchief was shaken out at window."

What occurred in the private apartment between Bacon, Governor, and Council is not known; probably the excitement of the moment prevented any definite action. Bacon came out and about an hour afterwards made his appearance in the Assembly Chamber up-stairs where he addressed the Burgesses, asking for a commission. The Speaker, who was a Baconian, declared that it was "not in their province, or power, nor of any other save the King's vicegerent, their Governor, to grant it;" but Bacon insisted and made "half an hour's harangue."

Its purport is summed up in a sentence. It was all about "preserving our lives from the Indians, inspecting the public revenues, the exorbitant taxes, and redressing the grievances and calamities of that deplorable country." The revolution thus announced its objects: not protection from Indians only, but a general redress of grievances and civil reform, sweeping out official vermin. The Burgesses hesitated, and took no action, and Bacon "went away dissatisfied." But the next day Governor and Council yielded; the Burgesses appointed Nathaniel Bacon General and Commander-in-Chief against the Indians; the appointment was ratified by Berkeley; and an act was passed granting pardon to Bacon and his followers for their Indian proceedings. A letter was even drafted to the King highly applauding them, and this also the Governor and Council were obliged to sign.

It was an immense triumph for the young rebel. Berkeley writhed and growled, but was disarmed and powerless. He took his revenge by sending to the Assembly a letter of his own to the King, in which he wrote: "I have for above thirty years governed the most flourishing country the sun ever shone over, but am now encompassed with rebellion, like waters, in every respect like that of Masaniello, except their leader," meaning, doubtless, that Bacon was not an ignorant fisherman, but a man of rank and brains who was much more dangerous.

The Burgesses were then dissolved, and went back to their homes, a brief session, over which the historians have raised a great pæan. The fact that it sat in June, 1676, and that in June, 1776, the same body instructed the Virginia delegates to propose independence of Eng

land, has been much dwelt upon. But no deliberate attempt was made to go to the root of the public griev ances. All was hurry and excitement, and after extending the suffrage, and passing laws against the sale in ordinaries of intoxicating drinks, and others denouncing "tumults, routs, and riots," which was rather anti-Baconian, the Burgesses went home.

An im

Bacon was now at the head of a small army, the regularly commissioned General-in-Chief of the Virginia forces, nominally against the Indians, but really against whomsoever he chose. All things in the Dominion of Virginia were virtually under his control. mense public sentiment supported him; he held the colony in his grasp; and the authority of Governor Berkeley was only a simulacrum. What would be his next step? It was noticed that thoughtful Mr. Lawrence had much talk with him at this time, and was "esteemed Mr. Bacon's principal consultant;" also “Mr. Drummond, a sober Scotch gentleman of good repute," who had been lately the Governor of North Carolina. He, too, was a foe of Berkeley's, on some grounds of his own, and was heard to say: "I am in, over shoes; I will be over boots." He lived at Jamestown, and these two "rogues," as his Excellency called them, were far too intimate with the fiery young General to suit Sir William. Would they induce him to forget his Indian business, and think of other things? Bacon seemed to decide that by promptly marching against the Indians.

He made his head-quarters then, as afterwards, near West Point, at the head of York River; the place was sometimes called "De la War," from Lord Delaware, whose family name was West; and here he disarmed the loyalists of Gloucester.

He then set out,

with a force variously estimated at from five hundred to one thousand men, to attack the Indians toward the head waters of the Pamunkey.

All his movements were full of energy, and met with that good fortune which follows the possession of brains and decision. Parties of horse were sent in every direction to scour the woods and ferret out the Indians; and the result of these measures, the chronicles say, was an unheard-of sense of security in the border plantations. It seemed, indeed, that young General Bacon was justifying the public opinion of him. He had wrested his commission from the Governor, but he was not using it to the hurt of the government. He was fighting the public enemy, and doing his duty as an honest Virginian.

That was not, however, apparently the view of affairs taken by his angry adversary. Suddenly, in the midst of his campaign, came intelligence that Governor Berkeley had a second time proclaimed Nathaniel Bacon and his followers rebels and traitors.

XVII.

THE OATH AT MIDDLE-PLANTATION.

SIR WILLIAM BERKELEY had imitated his master, Charles I. The King had fled for refuge against rebellion to his loyal shire of York; and the King's Governor now fled to York River and set up his flag there.

This was the natural sequel of the scene in front of the State House at Jamestown. Gloss over it as people might, the course of Bacon there was rebellion and

treason. By force of broadswords and "fusils," he had compelled his Majesty's representative to comply with his demands; and now it was to be decided to whom Virginia was to belong, whether to Bacon and his rebels, or to Berkeley and his loyal King's-men. Some of the best men in Virginia were ranged on each side, for the absurd old theory that the Berkeley men were all time-servers and mercenary people has nothing to support it. Still, the great mass of the people of all classes had sided with Bacon, and it seemed that his Majesty's representative would soon be a Governor without a government. In this cruel emergency a gleam of sunshine broke through the black clouds, settling down on the head of the ancient Cavalier. From Gloucester, beyond the York, came post-haste a King'sman, with a missive for his Honor from that most loyal county.

Gloster, as the old writers spell it, was "the place the best replenished for men, arms, and affection of any county in Virginia," the affection being for his Majesty and his Majesty's Governor. Bacon's horsemen had galloped about the country, disarming the adherents of Berkeley there; and this had naturally made an unpleasant impression. Now the truculent rebel was absent about his Indian business; the coast was clear for the true men to show their faces again; and the Gloster men sent a petition asking that Governor Berkeley would come and protect them from the Indians. Sir William promptly responded to the welcome request. This rich domain, full of loyal planters, was the place for the loyal Governor. He repaired thither at once, erected his standard, and summoned the people to array themselves under it.