登陆注册
15511400000042

第42章 CHAPTER XIII. REBELLION AND CHANGE(2)

This paper, being drawn, was the more quickly signed because there arrived, in the midst of the debate, a fresh Indian alarm. Attack threatened a fort upon the York-whence the Governor had seen fit to remove arms and ammunition! The news came most opportunely for Bacon. "There were no more discourses." The major portion of the large assemblage signed.

The old Government in Virginia was thus denied. But it was held that government there must be, and that the people of Virginia through representatives must arrange for it. Writs of election, made as usual in the King's name, and signed by Bacon and by those members of the Council who were of the revolt, went forth to all counties. The Assembly thus provided was to meet at Jamestown in September.

So much business done, off rode Bacon and his men to put down this latest rising of the Indians. Not only these but red men in a new quarter, tribes south of the James, kept them employed for weeks to come. Nor were they unmindful of that proud old man, Sir William Berkeley, over on the Eastern Shore, a well-peopled region where traveling by boat and by sandy road was sufficiently easy. Bacon, Lawrence, and Drummond finally decided to take Sir William captive and to bring him back to Jamestown. For this purpose they dispatched a ship across the Bay, with two hundred and fifty men, under the command of Giles Bland, "a man of courage and haughty bearing," and "no great admirer of Sir William's goodness." The ship proceeded to the Accomac shore, anchored in some bight, and sent ashore men to treat with the Governor. But the Governor turned the tables on them. He made himself captor, instead of being made captive. Bland and his lieutenants were taken, whereupon their following surrendered into Berkeley's hands. Bland's second in command was hanged; Bland himself was held in irons.

Now Berkeley's star was climbing. In Accomac he gathered so many that, with those who had fled with him and later recruits who crossed the Bay, he had perhaps a thousand men. He stowed these upon the ship of the ill-fated Bland and upon a number of sloops. With seventeen sail in all, the old Governor set his face west and south towards the mouth of the James.

In that river, on the 7th of September, 1676, there appeared this fleet of the King's Governor, set on retaking Virginia. Jamestown had notice. The Bacon faction held the place with perhaps eight hundred men, Colonel Hansford at their head. Summoned by Berkeley to surrender, Hansford refused, but that same night, by advice of Lawrence and Drummond, evacuated the place, drawing his force off toward the York. The next day, emptied of all but a few citizens, Jamestown received the old Governor and his army.

The tidings found Bacon on the upper York. Acting with his accustomed energy, he sent out, far and wide, ringing appeals to the country to rouse itself, for men to join him and march to the defeat of the old tyrant.

Numbers did come in. He moved with "marvelous celerity." When he had, for the time and place, a large force of rebels, he marched, by stream and plantation, tobaccofield and forest, forge and mill, through the early autumn country to Jamestown. Civil war was on.

Across the narrow neck of the Jamestown penin sula had been thrown a sort of fortification with ditch, earthwork, and palisade. Before this Bacon now sounded trumpets. No answer coming, but the mouths of cannon appearing at intervals above the breastwork, the "rebel" general halted, encamped his men, and proceeded to construct siege lines of his own. The work must be done exposed to Sir William's iron shot.

Now comes a strange and discreditable incident. Patriots, revolutionists, who on the whole would serve human progress, have yet, as have we all, dark spots and seamy sides. Bacon's parties of workmen were threatened, hindered, driven from their task by Berkeley's guns. Bacon had a curious, unadmirable idea. He sent horsemen to neighboring loyalist plantations to gather up and bring to camp, not the planters--for they are with Berkeley in Jamestown--but the planters' wives. Here are Mistress Bacon (wife of the elder Nathaniel Bacon), Mistress Bray; Mistress Ballard, Mistress Page, and others. Protesting, these ladies enter Bacon's camp, who sends one as envoy into the town with the message that, if Berkeley attacks, the whole number of women shall be placed as shield to Bacon's men who build earthworks.

He was as good--or as bad--as his word. At the first show of action against his workmen these royalist women were placed in the front and were kept there until Bacon had made his counter-line of defense. Sir William Berkeley had great faults, but at times--not always--he displayed chivalry.

For that day "the ladies' white aprons" guarded General Bacon and all his works. The next day, the defenses completed, this "white garde" was withdrawn.

Berkeley waited no longer but, though now at a disadvantage, opened fire and charged with his men through gate and over earthworks. The battle that followed was short and decisive. Berkeley's chance-gathered army was no match for Bacon's seasoned Indian fighters and for desperate men who knew that they must win or be hanged for traitors. The Governor's force wavered and, unable to stand its ground, turned and fled, leaving behind some dead and wounded. Then Bacon, who also had cannon, opened upon the town and the ships that rode before it. In the night the King's Governor embarked for the second time and with him, in that armada from the Eastern Shore, the greater part of the force he had gathered. When dawn came, Bacon saw that the ships, large and small, were gone, sailing back to Accomac. Bacon and his following thus came peaceably into Jamestown, but with the somewhat fell determination to burn the place. It should "harbor no more rogues."

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 望天倾

    望天倾

    天路废墟中,一颗恐怖鬼头漫无目的的飘荡,不时传出凄厉的声音:“成仙路漫漫,黄泉路幽幽。成仙不如人,吾辈将何往。”
  • 我的修仙老友

    我的修仙老友

    “美女,驻颜丹来一个。”“不好?阳哥,来来来,咱俩演一场。会修仙,会炼丹,成为各大名门旺派争相抢夺嘚宝贝。对面的道姑看过来,啊呸,对面的美女看过来,喂!我不是送外卖的!猪脚不是见美女就走不动道的人,不喜勿喷。
  • 哈利波特与最佳配角

    哈利波特与最佳配角

    熟知剧情的重生者,在哈利波特世界的故事。只是作者闲的无聊所写的。。娱乐。小白作者,不喜绕道。不定期更新。
  • 永恒梦魔

    永恒梦魔

    生与死轮回不止,尘世间俯视众生;天地变幻,混沌重开,众生崛起,强者横行;可仙迹缥缈,渚雄难寻,遂大战天下,预搏苍天,引动万千浩劫,仙古破灭,古界凋零。看世间苍茫尘世,究竟是何人战天下各路群雄,此生谁为峰。一切将从这里开始。
  • 所屠

    所屠

    他……风华绝代,千古第一人他……从出生到现在从未败过他……是条深渊的狂龙,没人能压制住他他……邪气凛然,傲绝千古呐………帮我杀了他好不好他……只有你能杀掉,非你莫属他……是谁!!
  • 坏的童话

    坏的童话

    在生命的最后时刻,江朵朵遇见了人生中最美好的邂逅。然而当妈妈郁郁而终后,一切变了。在她这个没有结局的童话里,在黑暗和阴谋下,她能找到快乐吗?
  • 邪王爱上毒娇妻

    邪王爱上毒娇妻

    女主角本是母亲亲生骨肉,却被对外宣称是领养女,因缘巧合被迫嫁给被莫名疾病深深困扰的当朝三皇子,当她真正接触后才发现很多事情本身远非外界传言的那样,阴谋,阳谋,责任,亲情,恩情,自由,还有那不确定的爱情瞬间便向她袭来,她终将作何抉择,命运又将会引领她走向哪里。敬请期待。
  • 萧蔷谣

    萧蔷谣

    祸起萧墙,她高贵的母亲诅咒似的唤她萧蔷,赐予她婢子的身份存活于董南将军府,便撒手仙去。未料此姑娘集才华与心眼子于一身,开始坚持不懈的消灭敌人,成功从小奴隶翻身把歌唱
  • 传奇娱乐家

    传奇娱乐家

    当所有记者追问他成功的秘诀时,他微笑着说“其实我是一个穿越者!”
  • 绝世逍遥游

    绝世逍遥游

    “我决定了!我们佣兵团的名字就叫做尖刀连!”楚凡突发奇想,兴奋地说道。“老大,这个名字好土!换一个行不?!”胖子翻了翻白眼,有些郁闷。“怎么会土?我觉得挺好的!就这样定了!”楚凡大手一挥,直接拍板。柜台里的美丽女孩不停地偷笑,用笔在纸上快速地登记着:“佣兵团名称:尖刀连。佣兵团成员:楚凡、雷猛、王富贵、方行云、赫连春雨。佣兵团等级:D级。”······我本楚狂人,凤歌笑孔丘!红尘路万里,绝世逍遥游!