University of Virginia Library

5. CHAPTER V.
OCCUPATION OF THE TOWN BY INSURGENTS.

The news of the arrest of Bacon and his adherents had flown like wildfire
from Jamestown to the interior, and before night, a hundred of his
friends, mounted and armed, were in the town, who finding him restored
to favor, and his adherents to liberty, returned home satisfied, and with better
feelings towards the Governer. Sir William Berkley took advantage of
this favorable state of the public mind, and seeing all was once more quiet,
issued private warrants to take him again, he having gone to his plantation.
At the same time he sent to levy the militia of one of the connties which,
situated on the opposite side of the bay, had not inoculated with Bacon's
`treason,' and would, doubtless, readily obey his orders, so that, holding the
balance of power in his own hands, he might withstand any attempts of
Bacon's adherents to rescue him, (should he arrest him,) or avert the course
of his vengeance.

Bacon, however, was far from being a dupe, to the Governer's duplicity.
He anticipated these very steps, and had no sooner reached his own country
than he dispatched secret orders to his captains and other officers, to be in
readiness for action. At the end of the fourteenth day, he sent a messenger
to Jamestown for his commission. Sir William Berkley replied it
was ready for him, and the troops already levied, and would be in Jamestown
the third day thereafter, to the number of one thousand men.

`There shall be a thousand men there before them, you little suspect, Sir
William,' said Bacon with a smile, when the messenger returned him this
answer, for he had heard of the private warrant, and now determined to
act.

The same evening he was riding towards Jamestown with nine hundred
mounted men at his back. The Governor had rumor of his approach, and
in great alarm sent to the well-disposed districts, on both sides of the James
river, for forces to defend the town, upon which he was now assured Bacon
determined to make an attack.

Expresses came hourly of the army's approach, and at two o'clock the
ensuing day, the insurgents, (now for the first time, really such,) entered the
town without being withstood, and formed a body upon the green. `Not
a fflight shot ffrom the end of State House, of horse and ffoot, as regular
drawn up in battel array as veteran troopers, and possessing themselves

forthwith of all avenues, disarming all the towne, and coming thither both
in boats, and by the land.'

In half an hour after this, the drum beat for the Assembly to meet, and
soon after, the rebel chief came with a file of fusileers, to the outer porch of
the council chamber, when the Governor and council went forth to meet
him. The scene that followed, is best described in the words of an
eye-witness, who was a member of the assembly, and a partizan to the Governor.

`We saw from the windowe, the Governor open his breast when he saw
Bacon advancing upon him with such hostile bearings. The rebell captain
walked between his two files of soldiers, with a fierce aspect and haughtier
front, and seemingly in great ire and displeasure at the Governor. We did
momently fear he would bid his men fall upon Sir William, and those with
him, and we of the assembly expected the same immediate fate. I step'd
down to the out-door, and among the crowd, found the seamen of my plantation
sloop, who, in great fear, prayed me not to stir from them. I then
saw the Governor, who was looking very pale, for he had not two hundred
soldiers in the town to stick by him, walk towards his private apartment;
a coits' cast distant from the other end of the state house, the gentlemen of
the council following him. After him walked Colonel Bacon, commanding
his soldiers cock their pieces if any would escape, striking his hand on his
sword menacingly. The fusileers with their fusils cocked, presented them
at a window of the assembly chamber, filled with faces of the members,
and repeated in savage voices. `We will have it! we will have it!'

`What will you have?' asked one from the window.

`The commission!' answered they.

`You shall have it! you shall have it!' repeated the gentlemen, three or
four times, shaking his white handherchief out of the windowe.

At these words they unbent the locks of their fusils, and stood still until
Bacon coming back, (for he had entered the private room with the Governor,)
the followed to the main body.

`In this hubbub, a servant of mine got so nigh as to hear the Governor's
words, when he opened his breast, and also what Mr. Bacon said. Said
the Gov'nor—

`Here! shoot me! 'fore God, fair mark! shoot!' After rehearsing the
same without any other words, whereto Mr. Bacon replied:

`No—may it please yo'r excellence—we will not hurt a hair of yo'r head,
nor any other gentlemen present. We come for a commission to save our
lives and estates from the Indians. This you promised, and have deceived
me, and, moreover, have tried to have me arrested, meanwhile, that you
might get me into your hands. We want you to fulfil your promise, and
we do assure you we will have the commission before we goe,'

`And afterwards I heard it was said, Bacon ordered his fusileers, when
they were aiming at the windows full of faces, that if he should draw his
sword, they were on sight, of it, to fire and slay us, gazing out of the window,
saying, `I'll put to death, Gov'nor, council, assemblie and all, but that
I'll have the commission!' So near was the massacre of us all that very
minit, he had drawn his sword before the pacific handkercher was shaken
out of the windowe!'

The insurgent leader, on quitting the private apartment of the Governor,
where he had left him with his council, entered the assembly alone, leaving
his guard at the entrance, and haughtily demanded a commission to be
then and there given him. The speaker remained silent, when one of Bacon's
friends rose up and said with courtesy:

`We would most willingly do this, Colonel Bacon, but you must be aware

that to grant it, is not in our province or power, nor in any other, save the
King's vicegerent, our Governor.'

At length the Govornor and council came in, and promised that if he
would withdraw his troops, he should, the next day, receive a commission
as general of the forces which he now illegally commanded. To this, after
some discussion, he consented, desiring, if possible to avert bloodshed, by
bringing his troops in collosion with Governers Gloster's militia, which
would arrive the next day—his object being to obtain peaceibly, if he could,
forcibly if he must, legal authority to raise men in defence of the frontier.
Through all his conduct, he had shown a degree of moderation that proved
that he was actuated only by love for his country, and that, so far, he had
little deserved the stigma which was attached to his name.