A great number who had
wavered in the wind now declared that they had done no such thing, but had
always stood steadfast for the ancient powers.
The old Governor, who might once have been magnanimous, was changed for the
worse. He had been withstood; he would punish. He now gave full rein to his
passionate temper, his bigotry for the throne, and his feeling of personal
wrong. He began in Virginia to outlaw and arrest rebels, and to doom them
to hasty trials and executions. There was no longer a united army to meet,
but only groups and individuals striving for safety in flight or hiding.
Hansford was early taken and hanged with two lieutenants of Bacon, Wilford
and Farlow. Cheeseman died in prison. Drummond was taken in the swamps of
the Chickahominy and carried before the Governor. Berkeley brought his
hands together. "Mr. Drummond, you are very welcome! I am more glad to see
you than any man in Virginia! Mr. Drummond you shall be hanged in half an
hour!" Not in half an hour, but on the same day he was hanged,
imperturbable Scot to the last. Lawrence, held by many to have been more
than Bacon the true author of the attempt, either put an end to himself or
escaped northward, for he disappears from history. "The last account of Mr.
Lawrence was from an uppermost plantation whence he and four other
desperadoes with horses, pistols, etc., marched away in a snow ankle deep."
They "were thought to have cast themselves into a branch of some river,
rather than to be treated like Drummond.
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