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."
What Bacon, Lawrence, Drummond, Hansford, and others really hoped -- whether
they forecasted a republican Virginia finally at peace and
prosperous -- whether they saw in a vision a new capital, perhaps at Middle
Plantation, perhaps at the Falls of the Far West, a capital that should be
without old, tyrannic memories -- cannot now be said. However it all may be,
they put torch to the old capital town and soon saw it consumed, for it was
no great place, and not hard to burn.
Jamestown had hardly ceased to smoke when news came that loyalists under
Colonel Brent were gathering in northern counties. Bacon, now ill but
energetic to the end, turned with promptness to meet this new alarm. He
crossed the York and marched northward through Gloucester County. But the
rival forces did not come to a fight. Brent's men deserted by the double
handful. They came into Bacon's ranks "resolving with the Persians to go
and worship the rising sun." Or, hanging fire, reluctant to commit
themselves either way, they melted from Brent, running homeward by every
road. Bacon, with an enlarged, not lessened army, drew back into
Gloucester.
Pages:
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156