The night was dark and lowering, and masses of heavy clouds enveloped
the city, a bright red column of fire ever and anon shot fitfully up
from the smouldering ruins of the magazine, tipping the clouds with a
crimson tinge, and illuminating the city to the light of noonday, and
again suddenly giving place to volumes of thick sulphureous smoke which
involved the surrounding objects in tenfold darkness. Drums were heard
beating to arms--trumpets sounding the charge--fifes piercing the
air--bells ringing the alarm--muskets and petronels discharged in quick
succession, swords clashing, women shrieking, and men were seen running
hither and thither in all the tumult of popular commotion. Bacon had no
sooner lifted his frightened protegees into the carriage, than rushing
into the back court, he found Dudley at the head of their youthful corps
already desperately engaged with the Roundheads. He immediately threw
himself into the thickest of the fight. With all their desperate valour,
however, the two young officers were quickly sensible that they had
entirely miscalculated the number and appointments of their enemies. In
vain they endeavoured to repulse the hardy veterans who forced their way
to the doors and windows of the gubernatorial mansion. The assailants
moved to their work in a solid phalanx, that veteran soldier Worley,
conspicuous at their head, and literally hewing down all opposition. One
line after another of the valiant and high born youths fell before the
murderous weapons of the insurgents. In vain did Bacon and Dudley, and
Beverly and Ludwell, all now united in a common cause, enact prodigies
of valour; their impetuous lunges fell powerless upon the iron frames of
their opponents. Crowds of citizens now rushed against the insurgents
some armed with swords, others with scythe blades, others again with
bludgeons, and the rest with such means of destruction as they could
seize in the street as they hurried to the contest. The accession of
strength to the cause of the government was as yet of little avail,
Bacon and his followers being driven to the walls, while the insurgents
were protected on each side by a high wooden fence or barricade. Tables,
chairs and bedsteads were hurled upon the heads of the besiegers, and
the lower windows were thronged with eager citizens throwing their
hastily seized weapons upon the heads of the foe in a vain effort to
come within reach. The Cromwellians were now likewise receiving
momentary reinforcements of those who leapt the high fences, and filled
up the vacancies in the rear, as the front ranks fell in the desperate
encounter with the youths and citizens. To whom the victory would fall
could not long prove doubtful, situated as they now were; this Sir
William Berkley and his kinsman Fairfax had no doubt perceived early in
the engagement, for a shout from a multitude without the enclosure, in
the midst of which might be heard the voice of Brian O'Reily, now
announced the presence of the Governor. The welcome sound was speedily
and cheerily answered by the sinking youths within, who took courage at
the approach of succour, and fought with renewed spirit. The wooden
barricade, was now seen to heave and shake, with every motion and creak
of which O'Reily shouted in chorus, until at length the whole yielded
and fell with aloud crash. A rush of citizens quickly filled up the
breach, and poured their blows into the flank of the Roundheads, who now
changing their front charged upon their new assailants at the head of
whom were the Governor and Gideon Fairfax. The two old Cavaliers laid
about them in a style worthy of their best and most chivalrous days, and
the citizens as stoutly supported them although but poorly armed and
equipped for such a rencounter. By this change of front the gallant
little corps which had so long maintained its ground, was now in some
measure relieved, and no longer subject to the murderous strokes of the
iron-handed Cromwellians. By the order of Bacon they now poured their
fire into the flank of the enemy, and by this double annoyance to their
phalanx, would doubtless have speedily terminated the conflict, but the
friends of the Insurgents without, taking example by the manoeuvre of
the governor and his party, now broke down the barricade on the other
side, and rushed in their turn to the scene of conflict. As this new
reinforcement were pushing through the court to join their friends, in
storming the first breach, a loud explosion from Sir William's quarter
was heard, followed by the groans and shrieks of a whole phalanx of the
old and new assailants, in whose ranks a perfect lane was cut by this
discharge of grape shot through the very centre of their column. A rush
was now instantly made for the possession of the cannon, and as the
citizens poured through the governor's house and the Roundheads through
the new breach in the party-wall, a deadly scuffle ensued, which became
more and more ferocious and sanguinary as each party received fresh
accessions from their friends without. And though the Cavaliers and
their supporters outnumbered their enemies, the latter had decidedly the
advantage in equipment, strength and discipline; more especially in the
hand-to-hand mode of warfare which now became necessary from the numbers
crowded into so small a space. But there was another advantage which
they possessed--they had but one commander, the veteran Worley, while
the Cavaliers and citizens of the town were at one time commanded by
Bacon, and at another by Sir William Berkley.
Bacon perceiving the effect of this circumstance, singled out and
attacked the opposite leader in person, determined, if he lost his life
in the unequal conflict, to make the attempt at least to place the two
parties on a more equal footing. But Worley quickly detected his aim,
and being a not less expert swordsman than his antagonist, took
advantage of an impetuous thrust, and quickly brought him to the grapple
of close quarters. One excelled in strength, and the other in activity,
but notwithstanding the latter, superior powers of endurance would soon
have ended the duel unfavourably for our hero, had not a blow from
behind brought his powerful enemy to the ground. Before Bacon discovered
O'Reily, he was well convinced that the bludgeon which had interfered so
opportunely in his behalf, was wielded by no tyro at the weapon.
However, he lost but few seconds, either upon his assailant or
deliverer, but quickly directed his attention to matters of more
absorbing importance in the direction of cannon. Meantime O'Reily seized
the opportunity afforded by the engrossing nature of the conflict, in
the quarter just mentioned, and stooping down he took one of Worley's
feet under each arm, using his legs as shafts, and dragged him off to a
horse stall hard by, where having deposited the insensible veteran upon
the straw, he turned the key and consigned it to his pouch.
The battle now consisted almost entirely of numerous desperate
individual conflicts, each citizen as he arrived singling out some hated
Roundhead neighbour, and he in his turn as anxious to vent the party and
personal hatred which had been so long festering within his bosom. Sir
William Berkley perceiving that their veteran foes had a decided
advantage in the position now occupied by the parties respectively,
quickly devised a scheme, in concert with Mr. Fairfax, by which, while
the Governor kept the enemy engaged over the cannon, the latter should
take a score of sturdy citizens, and rushing in, regardless of
consequences, drag this sole apparent cause of contention into the
public square, and thus change the scene of action to a more open
position, where the superior bodily strength of the insurgents could no
longer avail them. The measure was executed with great spirit and
promptitude, and succeeded beyond their most sanguine expectations; for
no sooner had the citizens commenced dragging the piece at a brisk trot,
than both parties tumultuously pressed round its wheels, and thus
unconsciously were brought into a fair field of action. Bacon, as soon
as he saw the design of the movement, wheeled his hardy youths through
the Governor's house, and formed a line at the critical moment when the
confused combatants arrived fighting over the gun: thus affording a
rallying point for the friends of order and the government. The
governmental troops immediately formed upon the line already partly
established by Bacon and his corps, and thus the gun was at length
brought to bear for a time upon the opposing ranks. The light which had
hitherto fitfully gleamed upon the strife, was now sinking after long
intervals, and emitting that unsteady and wavering flame which announces
rapidly approaching extinction. A few rounds of musketry and one or two
discharges from the small fieldpiece, and the arena of conflict was
shrouded in impenetrable darkness, save from the momentary glare which
preceded the explosions. The Cromwellians, locking their column more
compactly together, rushed in a solid body upon the newly formed line of
the citizens. So sudden and so impetuous was this movement, and so
skilfully executed, that the brave but ill disciplined combatants,
against whom it was directed, gave way before the solid phalanx of the
enemy, leaving the long disputed fieldpiece surrounded by the
Insurgents. They immediately turned its muzzle upon its late owners, and
were about charging it with the usual silence and promptitude of their
movements, when a bright light from a burning torch was seen forcing its
way almost undisputed through their ranks. The Cromwellians stood aside
for its passage with an irresolute sort of tardiness, produced by a
doubt whether the bearer were a friend or an enemy. But they were not
left long in suspense, for he had no sooner arrived at this point, now
forming the line between the contending parties, than he sprang upon the
carriage of the gun, holding his torch aloft, so as to shed a glaring
light upon the assembled multitude of both parties, who stood now for a
moment of truce, in wonder at the strange and gigantic figure before
them.
"Hold!" said he in a loud authoritative voice, and waving his hand with
a commanding gesture over the ranks of the Roundheads who crowded round
him. "Where is your commander, Worley?"
"He is slain," answered twenty voices.
"His blood be upon his own head. Where is he who commandeth in his
stead?"
"Here am I," said a short black visaged thick-set man. "Here am I,
Ananias Proudfit, whom the Lord hath commissioned this night to take
away the wicked from the land, and to root out the Amalekite, and the
Jebusite, and the Perizzite, and the Hittite, and the Girgashite and the
Amorite. And are not this council and this wicked Governor justly
comparable to the five Kings who took shelter in the cave of Makkeda,
who were"--
"Peace, brawler, peace," thundered the gigantic umpire, "and cease to
pervert the word of God to thy murderous and unholy purposes. Take
warning by the fate of thy predecessor. Thou would'st not listen to a
more safe and peaceable admonition, administered in humility and good
faith. Now I tell thee that if thou art still deaf, this good sword
shall cleave thy hardened skull," and he drew his formidable weapon and
brandished it over the torch. "Hah! sayest thou so," said the enraged
Proudfit, aiming a deadly blow at the gigantic figure towering above
him, but which the stranger struck aside with the ease of a wary and
practised swordsman, and in the next moment as he had promised, drove
his ponderous weapon into the skull of his assailant. Then hurling his
torch into the advancing throng of the Independents, he brandished the
huge glittering blade in fearful circles around the besieged gun, and
quickly cleared a space for its more dexterous and effectual employment.
The fight was now renewed in all quarters, but evidently to greater
disadvantage on the part of the Insurgents, than they yet had to contend
with. The loss of their commander a second time, even in the ordinary
course of warfare, would doubtless have disheartened them, but the
circumstances under which the last had fallen--the superstitious
reverence in which they were accustomed to hold the Recluse--all
contributed to damp their ardour, to say nothing of the bloody barricade
he had already piled around his person. They were now, too, in a
comparatively open field, where the greater numbers of their enemies
could avail much, and where no opportunity was afforded for the fatal
grapple which had so well served the rebels in the earlier stages of the
conflict. They were assailed from all points of the square at the same
moment, while the Recluse, in the very heart of their ranks, was
literally hewing them down like weeds and cumberers of the ground. No
quarter was asked or given--they had staked their all upon the success
of their enterprise, and seemed determined, long after all hope of
success in their first project must have failed, to leave a bloody
monument to their foolhardy courage, if not to their wisdom and
fore-thought. Nathaniel Bacon, exhausted by the loss of blood from
wounds received in the desperate repulse of the insurgents during the
early part of the engagement, and feeling his tremendous responsibility
for his inadequate preparations, no longer so onerous or so urgent upon
himself, fell upon the field, and was borne to the house of his early
friend and patron.
With the powerful aid of the Recluse, and the accumulating
reinforcements from the loyal citizens of the town, the remainder of the
gallant but misguided zealots were soon either cut down, captured, or
put to flight. The slain of the Cavalier party were laid out in the
State House, while those of the opposite faction were deposited in the
tobacco warehouse, so lately the scene of youthful revels.
The wounded were removed to the houses of their friends and relations
throughout the city, and in a short time as profound silence reigned
along its deserted streets as if no one had arisen to disturb its peace.
Not an individual could be found who had seen the Recluse after the
termination of the struggle. The slain were carefully examined, but no
such huge proportions as his lay stretched in death, among the gory
trophies of his prowess.
The veteran soldiers, so many of whom had fallen, while others were
confined within the jail of the colony, were a remnant of Cromwell's
soldiers who had been sent from the parent country, on account of their
restless and dangerous propensities, some of them had been sold into
temporary bondage, while others established themselves in business or
planting on their own account. They had formed the desperate resolution
of rising upon the governor and his guests while seated over their wine,
supposing that, in the promiscuous massacre which they had intended to
perpetrate, all the councillors, and leading men of the colony would be
swept away, and themselves thereby enabled to revolutionize the
government.
The Recluse had doubtless been vainly urged to join their desperate
faction, and it would appear that they had either depended upon their
threats of vengeance as a sufficient warrant for his fidelity, or
trusted to his supposed predilection for their cause, and hatred against
the authorities then at the head of colonial affairs. Nor does it appear
that he did openly and boldly betray them. Bacon had by some means or
other of his own, pryed so far into the secret of the incipient
rebellion as to learn who were the prominent leaders--by the suggestion
of the Recluse, obtained through the agency of Virginia, he had found
access to the ear of one Berkenhead, an influential man among them, who,
influenced by gold and liberal promises, betrayed so much of the
conspirators' designs as enabled Bacon to adopt the preparations of
which we have just seen the result. And though they were of themselves
totally inadequate, yet they served the purpose of keeping the murderers
at bay, until time was afforded for the intervention of the citizens,
and thus had preserved the lives of the Governor and his Council,
together with those of many members of the House of Burgesses. The
Assembly, which convened three days afterward, unanimously voted three
thousand weight of tobacco to the traitor Berkenhead, and passed sundry
pious resolutions of thanks to the Almighty for their deliverance,
besides setting the day apart as one of thanksgiving for ever after.
The ancient city presented a strange and desolate appearance on the
succeeding morning, in the neighbourhood of the public square. Houses
were deserted by their tenants, windows shattered, palings pulled down,
the ground stained with blood; guns, petronels, swords, hats, and
missiles of various descriptions lay scattered about in strange
confusion.
At length the drowsy citizens were awakened to the importance of the
day. A court of inquiry was assembled for the purpose of investigating
the conspiracy which had so nearly proved fatal to the existing order of
things on the previous night. The prisoners were brought from the jail
to the Court House in irons, and all the witnesses supposed to know any
thing of the matter, were in readiness. Nathaniel Bacon was the first
called, but Mr. Fairfax came forward and stated that his wounds were so
much more dangerous than had previously been supposed, that the surgeon
strictly enjoined quiet and repose, and recommended if possible to
postpone taking his deposition for the present. As the testimony was
ample and satisfactory without his attendance, the examination of course
proceeded. Berkenhead's deposition was essentially what we have already
more succinctly stated in explanation of the insurrection, and most of
the other witnesses testified only to what the reader has already seen
or surmised. There was one witness, however, whose testimony was so
novel and amusing, amidst the general scene of confusion and bloodshed,
that we must by no means neglect it. Brian O'Reily was called in his
turn to give evidence on behalf of the crown on a charge of treason
against the prisoners at the bar.
"Well, O'Reily," said the examining officer, "please to tell the court
what you know of the treasonable practices of any of the prisoners at
the bar."
"Be the twelve Apostles and St. Patrick into the bargain, I caught one
iv them in the very act."
"What act did you see, O'Reily, and which of these men was the
perpetrator?"
"Faix it was just trason itself I caught him at; sure if I hadn't
brought his head acquainted wid my shelaleigh, he'd iv murthered one of
the king's officers iny way--young master Bacon."
"Well, tell us which of these men it was, and any thing you know
concerning the getting up of this rebellion."
"The man's not there at all at all--he's at another bar, and has been
this ten hours gone."
"He's at the bar of God, you mean?"
"I mane no sich thing, axing your honour's pardon for conthradictin you.
Here's the key that's turned an 'im; besides, didn't I slape by the
door all night wid nobody for company but a small dhrop iv whiskey, and
didn't I spake to him this morning through the key hole, and didn't he
coax and palaver wid me to let him out, and didn't he come over me wid
his wife and nine childre, one at the breast, barrin that I knew it was
a d--d lie at that same recknin, savin your presence, an didn't he fret
about bein cooped up in sich a place all night wid nothin to ate an the
same, to dhrink, barrin the hay that was in the rack, an didn't I answer
him from the contints iv the book, sayin that many a betther man than
him had been born and brought up in a manger, (crossing himself) an
didn't he call me all sorts iv hathen names; indeed an he did--the best
iv them was cut-throat and horse-thaif, only they were in the Habrew
language, an didn't I tell him he was a Judaite, an a wolf in sheep's
clothin, an that he hated the very name iv Bacon. And may be he didn't
call me a dam'd papist? An didn't I tell him he'd live to see his own
funeral iny way? an didn't he answer me all about popes and bulls and
papists? Oh! get away wid your blarney, says I, you're safe now as the
Governor's old bull wid the short tail and the shambles on two of his
legs, only I tould him he'd perhaps be likein the darbies on his hands
instead of his trotters."
"And who was this, Brian, that you held this long discourse with through
a key hole? You're giving us another of your drunken dreams I fear?"
"Divil a word iv a lie's in it, your haner, hav'nt I just come from the
stable door, and didn't I set ould growler, the bull dog to watch by him
till I came back--sure he cant come over him wid his blarney about the
wife and the nine childer--O be gorra I'm so tender hearted, it was a
clane temptation to me."
"Who was it had the nine children?"
"Auld Nick fly away wid the nine he's got iv them; didn't I tell your
haner it was all blarney to move the tinder feelings of Brian O'Reily?"
"Who was it then, you were talking to through the key hole?"
"An 'is it his name your haner's axing after all this time? couldn't you
just say so at wanst, an not throw me out wid the story all thegither?
It's the Divil's own aid-the-camp I'm thinkin. It's the man that makes
swords all the time he's makin horse shoes, they call him Worley I'm
thinkin."
"Worley! is it possible? have you seen him this morning?"
"Be the contints iv the book but I saw him not an hour gone, through the
key hole; he was stanin up to hay like the Governor's horse, but his
appetite seemed to uv left him intirely."
"Can you show the officers where he is?"
"I can do that same, I'm bould to say; didn't I tell your haner it's the
key I had was turned an im?"
"And what is it the key of, O'Reily?"
"Faix it's the key to the Governor's stable." (This answer produced a
loud laugh from the spectators.) "Divel a word o lie's in it."
"Well, O'Reily, the officers are waiting on you; only prove to us that
this is not another of your drunken reveries, and it shall turn out
better for you than you now expect. Since it has been ascertained that
this man Worley was not to be found among the slain, the Governor has
issued his proclamation, offering two hundred pounds for his
apprehension, dead or alive."
"Oh!" said O'Reily, as he was going out of the door, "but I'm afeard
you'll find him rather in a state iv thribulation, I did some killen an
im myself: Oh wasn't that a beauty iv a shelaleigh? Only to think of two
hundred pounds; faix if I get it but I'll have it set in brass."
The officers in attendance, with Brian at their head, soon emerged from
the Governor's stable amidst the shouts and cheers of the multitude. The
unfortunate Roundhead commander was brought into courts suffering
severely from thirst, and the effects of the contusion, produced by the
violence of O'Reily's blow.
We will not detain the reader over revolting portions of the trial
either now or hereafter; suffice it to say, therefore, in brief, that
O'Reily received the interest of two hundred pounds ever afterwards for
his capture of the Rebel Chief. Four of the ringleaders at the second,
and final trial were condemned and speedily executed, and the others
recommended to mercy. Thus was terminated this sanguinary conflict, the
last convulsive throe of the Independent faction in the British
dominions of North America.
As our tale is no farther directly connected with this ill-advised and
hopeless insurrection, we proceed in the next chapter with the direct
thread of our narrative, the principal personages of which were so
directly concerned in the bloody affair just related, that we could not
pass it over with any kind of regard to historical accuracy.