"that it should be so meant or intended! Himself and army, by his command, had some few days before taken the Oath of Allegiance!"

So the oath was taken and the paper subscribed by these loyal prime gentlemen, who were so punctilious about their allegiance to the King the oath to fight the King's troops if they came to Virginia.

This Middle-Plantation meeting was a stormy affair. The struggle had continued from noon to midnight, and the scene lit up by torches in the summer night must have been striking. In the centre of the excited crowd is the young Cromwell of twenty-eight, his face flushed and his eyes blazing as he urges this or that argument showing the necessity of the proposed oath. Around him are the prime gentlemen with doubtful or resolute faces, and the well-armed housekeepers girt with broadswords, looking and listening. No doubt that quiet gentleman yonder is thoughtful Mr. Lawrence, who sees with delight that the "resolute temper" of the young General has swept away all opposition, and that the Virginians are going to "see the King's peace kept by resisting the King's viceregent."

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The paper signed at Middle-Plantation on this 3d of August, 1676, is a notable document. It begins by setting forth that "certain persons have lately contrived the raising forces" against General Bacon and the people, thereby to beget civil war;" and they will endeavor to apprehend "those evil disposed persons, and them secure until further orders from the General; so much for his Excellency. And as Sir William has informed the King that Virginia is in rebellion, and he needs troops," We, the inhabitants of Virginia," will “to the utmost of our power oppose and suppress all forces

whatsoever of that nature, until such time as the King be fully informed of the state of the case by such person or persons as shall be sent from the said Nathaniel Bacon, in the behalf of the people, and the determination thereof be remitted hither."

This was plain. His Majesty's Governor and representative was making war on Virginia. His Majesty's true representative was not this traitor, but General Bacon. As the most loyal of the King's subjects they meant to crush the King's Governor if they could; to inform the King of all things; and meanwhile to oppose and fight the King's troops if they came to Virginia. The last clause bore a strong resemblance to an important feature in another paper, signed at Philadelphia July 4, 1776. This engagement taken by the Virginians was signed August 3, 1676, nearly a hundred years before.

The great business was thus finished. The leading men were banded together in support of Bacon, and the next step was to organize a government. None but the Virginia people had authority to do that; and Bacon issued writs for the representatives of the people to assemble early in September. The writs were in the name of his Majesty, and signed by four members of the Council who were present at the meeting. Then, without loss of time, swift couriers bore them away to the four winds; and Bacon, secure now, as he said, that in his absence "to destroy the wolves" the foxes would not "devour the sheep," set off with his army again to finish his Indian campaign.

He left behind him a mighty tumult. Virginia had risen for the right. The New World had defied the Old. The oath on the Virginia Field of Mars to fight Eng

land, sworn by torchlight in the midst of grim faces, stirred up a great wave of rejoicing, which rolled over all Virginia, from the lowland to the mountains. Everywhere men and women hailed it with enthusiasm. "Now we can build ships," they said, "and, like New England, trade to any part of the world!"— an evidence of the aversion to the navigation laws. Sarah Drummond, the wife of the sober Scottish conspirator,, exclaimed:

"The child that is unborn shall have cause to rejoice for the good that will come by the rising of the country!" And when a person beside her croaked,

"We must expect a greater power from England that will certainly be our ruin," Drummond's wife picked up a stick, broke it in two, and said disdainfully,

"I fear the power of England no more than a broken straw!"

When others faltered, she exclaimed bravely, "We will do well enough!" and that was the hopeful feeling of the great mass of the people. Thousands of men and women and the hearts of women are braver and more devoted than the hearts of men, often were uttering, doubtless, similar words, full of the true ring, all over Virginia. The country was with Bacon, and swore the oath with him.

He was, meanwhile, at work again. Having issued his proclamation that all friends of the cause should, on "the arrival of the forces from England, retire into the wilderness and oppose them," he crossed James River at Curles, according to one account, attacked the Appomattox Indians at what is now Petersburg, and killed or routed the whole tribe. He then traversed the south side toward the Nottoway and Roanoke, dispersed all the savages he encountered, and early in September

"draws in his forces within the verge of the English Plantations." At West Point, his "prime rendezvous or place of retreat," he dismissed all but a detachment, to go home and rest; and this was the state of things, when the whole face of affairs suddenly changed.

News came that Sir William Berkeley, with seventeen ships and a thousand men, had returned from Accomac, sailed up James River, and was again in possession of Jamestown.

XVIII.

THE WHITE APRONS AT JAMESTOWN.

THE fortunes of Sir William Berkeley in the " Kingdom of Accomac" had been a checker-work of sun and shadow. The first outlook there seemed gloomy indeed; the chill wind of disloyalty blew steadily over that sandy region, as it blew across the green hills of Virginia. Few gleams of hope cheered the black darkness around the old King's-man. The virus of rebellion had infected the Eastern Shore men as well as the West Shore men. His Excellency could get no substantial planters to espouse his fortunes; and it seemed that if he returned at all, it would be at the head of a handful of "rabble."

But all at once the skies cleared. A lucky accident cheered the heart of the despondent Cavalier. Bacon, after attending to matters at Middle-Plantation, had sent one of his friends to confine the Governor in Accomac, or capture him. This person was Mr. Giles Bland,

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a gentleman of an active and stirring disposition, and no grate admirer of Sir William's goodness." He was

to go and block up" his foe Sir William, or induce the people to surrender him, "thinking the coun try, like the Friar in the Bush, must needs be so mad as to dance to their pipe." So, General Bacon hoping that his Lieutenant, Bland, might "go forth with an empty hand but return with a full fist," placed this business in his charge, and went after the Indians.

These phrases of the old chronicle show the eccentric humor of the times. Such turns of expression constantly crop up in these uncouth writings, and relieve the tragedy of the narrative. The authors sympathize really with Bacon, but then he and his friends are rogues and rebels; and it is the "Rogue's March" they are going to pipe to make the Accomackians dance. The performance soon begins, but a dirge is to wind up the gay lilt for some people. Bacon's "Lieutenantgeneral Bland, a man of courage and haughty bearing," set forth on his enterprise. He had two hundred and fifty men, and one ship with four guns, under command of an old sailor, Captain Carver, who was "resolved to adventure his old bones" for the rebel cause. This one ship was insufficient, however, and Bland seized another, lying in York River, which belonged to a Captain Laramore, probably a trader and a friend of Berkeley's. This seizure irritated Laramore and was the cause of many woes. He had been arrested and confined in his cabin, but dissembled, professed sympathy, and was restored to the command of his ship; and then Bland sailed for Accomac. On the way he captured another vessel, making four in all; and with this fleet came in sight of the Eastern Shore.

At the appearance of the four ships mounted with cannon Sir William gave up all for lost. His days in Accomac had not been happy days. Instead of