BACON A REBEL.
"Hark! 'tis the sound that charms
The war-steed's wakening ears.
Oh! many a mother folds her arms
Round her boy-soldier, when that call she hears,
And though her fond heart sink with fears,
Is proud to feel his young pulse bound
With valor's fervor at the sound."
--MOORE.
The day after the mysterious disappearance of the ship _Despair_ and the
flight of Bacon, a ship from New England arrived in port. Bacon's flight
and the disappearance of Sir Albert and his vessel were so nearly at the
same time, that a rumor went around the town that the former had escaped
in the vessel of the latter. This rumor however was soon dispelled on
learning that Bacon was at Curles rallying the planters about him.
The vessel which had just come into port aroused new speculations, until
it was learned that it was only a trading ship from Boston doing a
little business in defiance of the navigation laws. The vessel brought
only one passenger. That passenger was a beautiful young maid.
She was landed soon after the vessel cast anchor, and her first inquiry
was for Rebecca Stevens:
"Is she a relative of yours, young maid?" asked the man of whom she
inquired.
"No; I know of her, and would see her."
"Do you see the large brick house upon the hill--not the one on the left
of the church, but to the right with the broad piazza and wires
in front?"
"I see it."
"She lives there. It is the home of Hugh Price, who married her mother."
The sailors brought some baggage ashore which was carried to a warehouse
to remain until the fair traveller should send for it, and pay the costs
of transfer.
"Do you travel alone, young maid?" asked the man whom she had addressed.
"I do."
"Where is your mother?"
"Dead," she answered sadly,
"Then you are an orphan?"
"I am. War is raging with the Indians in New England, and I was not safe
there, so I came to Virginia."
She thanked the man who had so kindly directed her, and went to the
house of Hugh Price. This house, next to the home of Governor Berkeley,
was the most elegant mansion in Virginia. On the front door was a large
brass knocker, common at the time, and, seizing it, the young girl
struck the door. It was opened by a negro woman whose red turban and
rich dress indicated that she was the household servant of an
aristocratic family. The stranger asked for Rebecca Stevens, and was
shown to her room. Rebecca was astonished to see the pretty stranger;
but before she could ask who she was, the maid said:
"I am Ester Goffe from Massachusetts. The war with the Indians rages
sorely in that land, and my friends and relatives sent me here."
"Ester--Ester Goffe," stammered Rebecca. "Then you are my brother's
affianced."
"I am."
In a moment the girls were clasped in each other's arms, mingling their
tears of joy and grief. Then Rebecca held her at arm's length and,
gazing on the beautiful face and soft brown eyes, said:
"I don't blame Robert. How could he help loving you?" and once more she
clasped her in her arms.
"Where is he--where is Robert?"
Rebecca started at the question, and an expression of pain swept over
her face, which alarmed Ester.
"Alas, he is gone. He hath fled with Bacon, and I fear that you have
escaped from one calamity only to fall into another." Then she explained
the distracted condition of the country, concluding with:
"You must not be known here as Ester Goffe. Were it known by Sir William
Berkeley, or even my mother's husband, that the child of a regicide was
here, I know not what the result would be; but, alas, I fear it would be
your ruin."
"But can I see him?" asked Ester.
"Who, Sir William Berkeley or Mr. Hugh Price?"
"Robert."
A pallor overspread the sister's face at this request, and she answered
that she knew not how they could communicate with him.
"Have you no faithful servant?"
There was old black Sam who had always been faithful. Usually the
negroes were cunning as well as treacherous, for, having been but
recently brought from Africa, they had much of the heathen still in
their natures; but old black Sam had been faithful to the brother
through all trying scenes and adversities, and, though he dared not
"cross Master Price," he secretly aided Rebecca in many small schemes
objectionable to the stepfather. Sam was summoned, and Rebecca asked:
"Sam, could you find my brother?"
"I doan know, misse; but I believe old black Sam could."
"Would you take a small bit of writing to him?"
"If misse want um to go, ole black Sam, him try. De bay boss, him go
fast, an' black Sam, him go on um back."
Rebecca hastily wrote on a slip of paper:
DEAR BROTHER;--
Ester is at our house and would like to see you. Do not come unless you
can do so safely, for Sir William Berkeley is furious.
Your sister,
REBECCA.
Meanwhile, the fiery General Bacon was not at Curles nursing his sick
wife, as was reported (and who was not sick at all); but he, in company
with Robert Stevens, was riding to and fro, at the heads of the rivers,
sounding the slogan. At the word from Bacon, his friends rose in arms,
and among them were a part of the eight thousand horse which Berkeley
had reported in the colony. The people had borne enough of Berkeley's
tyranny, and the masses sided with Bacon. Even those who did not take up
arms in his defence were friendly to his interests. The clans were
gathering. They hastened from plantation and hundred, from lowland
manor-house and log cabin in the woods of the upland, well-armed
housekeepers, booted and spurred, armed with good broadswords and fusils
for the wars that were plainly coming. Bacon in a little while had
collected a force of nearly six hundred men. In fact, it was not more
than three or four days after his escape, before, at the head of this
force, he was marching on Jamestown.
Berkeley was alarmed and dispatched messengers to York and Gloucester
for the train-bands; but only about one hundred soldiers could be
mustered, and before these could reach Jamestown, Bacon entered it at
the head of his army, and about two o'clock in the afternoon drew up his
troops, horse and foot, upon the green, not an arrow's flight from the
end of the statehouse. All the streets and roads leading into the town
were guarded, the inhabitants disarmed and the boats in the
harbor seized.
Jamestown was thrown into confusion. Sir William Berkeley and his
council were holding a council of war, when the roll of drums and blast
of trumpets announced that Bacon was in possession of the city.
The house of burgesses was called to order, though little order was
preserved on that day, when a collision between law and rebellion seemed
inevitable. Between two files of infantry Bacon advanced to the corner
of the statehouse, and the governor came out. Bacon, who had perfect
control over himself, advanced toward him. Berkeley was in a rage.
Walking straight toward Bacon, he tore open the lace at his bosom
and cried:
"Here! Shoot me! 'Fore God, a fair mark!"
Bacon curbed his rising anger and replied:
"No, may it please your honor, we will not hurt a hair of your head, nor
of any other man's. We are come for a commission to save our lives from
the Indians, which you have so often promised, and now we will have it
before we go."
Without a word in response, the governor and council wheeled about and
returned to their chamber, and Bacon followed them, his left arm akimbo,
his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. As they made him no answer,
Bacon became furious and tossed his arms about excitedly, while the
fusileers covered the window of the assembly chamber with their guns,
and continually yelled:
"We will have it! We will have it!" (Meaning the commission.)
One of Bacon's friends among the burgesses shook his handkerchief from
the window and answered:
"You shall have it! You shall have it!"
The soldiers at this uncocked their guns and waited further orders from
Bacon. Their leader had dashed into the council chamber swearing:
"D--n my blood! I'll kill governor, council, assembly and all, and then
I'll sheathe my sword in my own heart's blood!"
The wildest excitement prevailed in the town. Everybody was on the
street, and the massacre of the governor and his council was momentarily
expected. Two young girls ran toward an officer in the army of the
rebel. One of Bacon's young captains met them and clasped an arm about
each. It was Ester and Rebecca meeting the brother and lover. The
excitement was too great for many to bestow more than a passing glance
on the trio. There was a murmured prayer by all three, and they
were silent.
A scene so ridiculous as to excite the laughter of many followed the
assault on the statehouse. A sleek, plump little fellow, frightened out
of his wits, was seen trying to climb out of a window on the opposite
side from which danger was threatened. He got out and clung to the
window with his hands, his short, fat legs dangling in the air and
kicking against the wall.
"Marry! help me! Mother of God, I will be killed if I fall, and shot if
I don't!"
It was Giles Peram, whose legs were six feet from the ground. He howled
and yelled; but all were too busy to pay any attention to him, and at
last his strength gave out, and he fell with a stunning thud upon the
ground, where he lay gasping for breath, partially unconscious, but with
no bones broken.
After half an hour's interview, Bacon returned. The burgesses hesitated;
but the governor held out some promises for next day. Giles Peram,
having regained his strength and breath, sprang to his feet and ran as
fast as his short legs could carry him to the far end of the street to
escape from the town; but half a dozen mounted Virginians with
broadswords blocked up his passage. He next ran to the left and was met
by men with pikes, one of whom prodded him so that he yelled and ran
under some ornamental shrubs, beneath which a pair of frightened dogs
had taken shelter. A fight for possession followed, and for a while it
was doubtful; but Giles, inspired by fear, fought with the desperation
of a madman and drove the dogs forth. With his scarlet coat and his silk
stockings soiled, his wig lost and lace and ruffles all torn and ruined,
he crouched under the shrubs, groaning:
"Oh, Lordy, Lordy! I will be killed! I know I will be killed!" The
governor's valiant secretary presented a deplorable sight, indeed.
Next day Bacon was commissioned by the governor as general and
commander-in-chief of the forces against the Indians. It was a great
triumph for the young republican. Berkeley even wrote a letter to the
king applauding what Bacon had done on the frontier.
Robert Stevens paid his mother, sister and sweetheart a visit. Not
having received Rebecca's letter, he was ignorant of Ester's presence in
Virginia, until he discovered her, as they were drawn up for battle.
Many hoped that trouble was over; but Robert said:
"It is not. I know Berkeley too well. He is a cunning old knave, and as
soon as he has recovered from the fright into which the appearance of an
armed force precipitated him, he will relent and do something terrible."
"Brother, do not place yourself in his power," said his sister.
"Fear not, sweet sister, I shall have a care for myself. Where is Mr.
Price?"
"At the governor's."
"Does he know that Ester is General Goffe's daughter?"
"No."
"He must not. He would report it to the governor, who, in his idiotic
love for monarchy, would adjudge her responsible for a deed committed
before she was born."
"We will keep the secret, brother."
"When do you go?" asked Ester.
"The army marches against the Indians on the morrow." He was about to
say something more, when they espied Mr. Giles Peram coming toward them.
His face was smiling, though there were a few scratches upon it.
"Marry! friend Robert, good morrow! Did you learn of my great speech in
the house of burgesses yesterday, when they were about to refuse your
general his commission?"
"I knew not that you were a member of the house."
Peram, blushing, answered:
"Nor am I; but I forced myself, at the peril of my life, into their
presence, and I swore--yes, God forgive me, but I swore if they did not
give the commission, I would annihilate them, and, by the mass, they
were afraid of me, and they granted it." With this the diminutive
egotist strutted proudly before his auditors.
Black Sam, who had overheard his remark, with his native impetuosity put
in:
"'Fore God, massa, what a lie! Why, he war all de time under de thorn
bushes fighten wid de dogs fur a hiden-place."
Giles gave utterance to an exclamation of rage and flew at the negro
with upraised cane; but black Sam evaded his blow and, with a laugh, ran
into the kitchen, yelling back: "It am so. Jist see dem scratches on
him face."
Quite crestfallen, Mr. Peram retired, and for several days did not
annoy Rebecca with his presence.
Next morning Bacon started on his campaign against the Indians. The
burgesses were then dissolved and went back to their homes. The fact
that that body sat in June, 1676, and in the same month instructed the
Virginia delegates to propose independence of England, has been a theme
of much discussion among historians.
Bacon, at the head of his army, duly commissioned, was marching against
the Indians. All things in Virginia were virtually under his control as
commander of the military. Mr. Lawrence and Mr. Drummond, ex-governor of
Carolinia, though they were his friends, remained in Jamestown to look
after his interests there. Drummond declared he was "in over-shoes, and
he would be over-boots." Had Bacon been uninterrupted, there can be no
doubt that his power on the Indians would have been felt; but Berkeley
began to relent that he had ever commissioned him, and issued a
proclamation declaring him a rebel and revoking his commission. The news
was brought to Bacon while on the upper waters, by Lawrence and
Drummond. When he heard it, the general declared:
"It vexes my heart for to think that while I am hunting wolves, tigers
and foxes, which daily destroy our harmless sheep and lambs, I and those
with me should be pursued with a full cry, as a more savage or no less
ravenous beast."
Bacon began his march back to the lower waters. On the way, they
captured a spy sent by Berkeley to their camp and hung him. Bacon went
to the Middle Plantation, afterward Williamsburg, and camped.
Berkeley, hearing of the return of Bacon's army, which was not
disbanded, hastened to Accomac for recruits, and Drummond urged Bacon to
depose Berkeley, and appoint Sir Henry Chicheley in his place. When the
leader of the rebellion murmured against this, the Scotchman answered:
"Do not make so strange of it, for I can show you ancient records that
such things have been done in Virginia."
This, however, was carrying matters too far, even for Bacon. He
remembered that Governor Harvey, who had been deposed in a similar
manner, was reinstated by the king. He issued a remonstrance against
Berkeley's proclamation denouncing him as a rebel, declaring that he and
his followers were good and loyal subjects of the king of England, who
were only in arms against the savages. Then followed a list of public
grievances. He declared that some in authority had come to the country
poor, and were now rolling in wealth, likening them to sponges, that
have sucked up and devoured the common treasury. He asked, "What arts,
sciences, schools of learning, or manufactures have been promoted by any
now in authority?"
The governor's beaver trade with Indians, in which he thought more of
his profits than the lives of his subjects on the frontier, was not
forgotten.
Bacon was declared a rebel, his life was forfeited to Berkeley if
captured, and while at the Middle Plantation, he required an oath of his
followers to even resist the king's troops if they should come to
Virginia. The people of Virginia had not yet learned the true principles
of liberty. They still supposed that liberty could be gained while they
retained their allegiance to the king of England. It required a hundred
years more to convince them that freedom was incompatible with royalty.
The paper signed at Middle Plantation on this third day of August, 1676,
was a notable document. It began by stating that certain persons had
raised forces against General Bacon, which had brought on civil war, and
if forces came from England they would oppose them.
The next step of the rebels was to organize a government. Bacon issued
writs for the representatives of the people to assemble early in
September. The writs were in the king's name, and were signed by four
of the council.
This done, Bacon set off on his Indian campaign, leaving behind him a
mighty tumult. The new world had defied the old. At midnight by
torchlight, the grim-faced pioneers of Virginia had sworn to be free.
Everywhere men and women hailed the oath with enthusiasm.
"Now we can build ships and, like New England, trade with any other part
of the world," they declared. Sarah Drummond, the wife of the 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 by her side
said, "We must expect a greater power from England, that will certainly
be our ruin," Drummond's wife took up a stick, broke it in two and cried
disdainfully:
"I fear the power of England no more than a broken straw! We will do
well enough."
The women took great interest in public affairs at this time. The wife
of Cheeseman urged him to join Bacon and fight for their liberties,
which he did, as she afterward declared, at her own request. The whole
country was with Bacon, and, after instructing them to resist any force
that might come from England, he crossed James River at Curles with a
force of three hundred men, and fell upon the Appomattox Indians at what
is now Petersburg, with such fury that he killed or routed the entire
tribe. Bacon fought so viciously, that his name was a dread to the
savages fifty years after his death. For one without training, he
displayed wonderful military ability. Having completely routed all the
Indians, early in September Bacon with his army returned to the
settlements, and had reached West Point when he received news that Sir
William Berkeley, with a thousand men and seventeen ships, was in
possession of Jamestown.
Berkeley had not all gloom and disaster on his side. Captain Bland, who
had been sent by Bacon with a considerable force to capture Berkeley,
was led into a trap and captured by Captain Larramore. Shortly after,
the governor returned to Jamestown with a large number of longshoremen
and loafers, great enough in quantity, but inferior as soldiers
in quality.
While Jamestown was deserted by both belligerent parties, and its
frightened inhabitants were waiting in feverish anxiety the next event
in the great drama, there suddenly appeared in the harbor the wonderful
vessel _Despair_. The ship entered in the night as mysteriously as it
had disappeared, and again the white-haired Sir Albert was seen on the
streets of Jamestown. He met Rebecca the day of his arrival, and
she said:
"I feared you had gone, never to come back."
"Did you want to see me again, child?" he asked, in such a fatherly
voice, that she could scarce resist the impulse to embrace him.
"I did, Sir Albert, for I remembered your promise, and I depend on you."
"The war rages again?"
"It does, and I fear for my brother. Sir William is coming with a
thousand men."
"If the worst comes, sweet maid, I will take you aboard my ship."
"But my brother--oh, my brother!"
"He, also, will be safe."
"Would you take us all, and Ester, too?"
"Who is Ester?"
She told him all, for she felt that in this mysterious man she had a
friend on whom she could rely. When she had finished, Sir Albert shook
his snowy locks and remarked:
"You would do well to keep this from the ears of Sir William, sweet
maid."
Then he went away into the forest. That evening, as he sat at the
roadside, not far from Jamestown, the wife of Hugh Price, who had been
to Greenspring, was returning home on her favorite saddle-horse. The
animal became frightened at some object by the roadside, and leaped
madly forward. The saddle turned and the woman would have fallen had not
Sir Albert rushed to her rescue.
He lifted her from the saddle, and, while the horse dashed madly away,
seated the rider safely at the roadside.
"Are you injured?" he asked the half-fainting woman.
"No."
"You are fortunate to escape so narrowly, madam. Do you live at
Jamestown?"
"I do, sir. You are Sir Albert of the _Despair_, are you not?" asked
Dorothe Price.
"I am."
"I have often heard of you. I thank you for your kind service, sir."
"Shall I see you home?"
"If not too much trouble."
As they walked along the road, he asked:
"Are you Mrs. Price?"
"I am."
"Mr. Hugh Price is your second husband?"
"He is."
"When did your first husband die?"
"Many years ago. He was lost at sea."
"Did he leave two children?"
"Yes, sir, two," she sighed, and the white-haired stranger; glancing at
her face, asked:
"Was he a good man?"
"Good man! Oh, sir, he was an angel of goodness; but, alas, I never
appreciated him, until he was gone. I oft recall that fatal morning when
he bade me farewell, when he kissed the baby and left a tear on her
cheek. I was happy then!" Tears were now trickling down her cheeks.
"Are you happy now?"
"Alas, no. I am miserable."
"Why?"
"My husband is an enemy to my son. Price is a royalist while Robert is a
Puritan and a republican."
"Is your son with Bacon?"
"He is, and Sir William would hang Robert if he could."
"He shall not hang him."
"If he captures him, who will prevent it?"
"I will." They parted at the door, and as the old man went down to his
boat, she gazed after him, murmuring:
"Heaven surely hath sent us a protector at last."