The
Long Parliament was in session. Stafford had been beheaded, the Star
Chamber swept away, the Grand Remonstrance presented. On Edgehill bloomed
flowers that would soon be trampled by Rupert's cavalry. In Virginia the
Assembly took notice of these "unkind differences now in England," and
provided by tithing for the Governor's pension and allowance, which were
for the present suspended and endangered by the troubles at home. That the
forces banded against the Lord's anointed would prove victorious must at
this time have appeared preposterously unlikely to the fiery Governor and
the ultra-loyal Virginia whom he led. The Puritans and Independents in
Virginia -- estimated a little earlier at "a thousand strong" and now, for
all the acts against them, probably stronger yet -- were to be found chiefly
in the parishes of Isle of Wight and Nansemond, but had representatives
from the Falls to the Eastern Shore. What these Virginians thought of the
"unkind differences" does not appear in the record, but probably there was
thought enough and secret hopes.
In 1644, the year of Marston Moor, Virginia, too, saw battle and sudden and
bloody death. That Opechancanough who had succeeded Powhatan was now one
hundred years old, hardly able to walk or to see, dwelling harmlessly in a
village upon the upper Pamunkey. All the Indians were broken and dispersed;
serious danger was not to be thought of. Then, of a sudden, the flame
leaped again. There fell from the blue sky a massacre directed against the
outlying plantations.
Pages:
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122