Riding up the forest tracks, a company of planters from the threatened
neighborhood gathered together. "Let us make a troop and take fire and
sword among them!" There lacked a commander. "Mr. Bacon, you command!" Very
good; and Mr. Bacon, who is a born orator, made a speech dealing with the
"grievances of the times." Very good indeed; but still there lacked the
Governor's commission. "Send a swift messenger to Jamestown for it!"
The messenger went and returned. No commission. Mr. Bacon had made an
unpleasant impression upon Sir William Berkeley. This young man, the
Governor said, was "popularly inclined" -- had "a constitution not consistent
with" all that Berkeley stood for. Bacon and his neighbors listened with
bent brows to their envoy's report. Murmurs began and deepened. "Shall we
stand idly here considering formalities, while the redskins murder?"
Commission or no commission, they would march; and in the end, march they
did -- a considerable troop -- to the up-river country, with the tall, young,
eloquent man at their head.
News reached the Governor at Jamestown that they were marching. In a
tight-lipped rage he issued a proclamation and sent it after them. They and
their leader were acting illegally, usurping military powers that belonged
elsewhere! Let them disband, disperse to their dwellings, or beware action
of the rightful powers! Troubled in mind, some disbanded and dispersed, but
threescore at least would by no means do so. Nor would the young man "of
precipitate disposition" who headed the troop.
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