hapless monarch.
What was a passionate royalist government doing in Virginia now that
England was a Commonwealth? The passionate government answered for
itself in acts passed by this Assembly. With swelling words, with a
tragic accent, it denounced the late happenings in England and all the
Roundhead wickedness that led up to them. It proclaimed loyalty to "his
sacred Majesty that now is"--that is, to Charles Stuart, afterwards
Charles the Second, then a refugee on the Continent. Finally it enacted
that any who defended the late proceedings, or in the least affected to
question "the undoubted and inherent right of his Majesty that now is to
the Collony of Virginia" should be held guilty of high treason; and
that "reporters and divulgers" of rumors tending to change of government
should be punished "even to severity."

Berkeley's words may be detected in these acts of the Assembly. In no
great time the Cavalier Governor conferred with Colonel Henry Norwood,
one of the royalist refugees to Virginia. Norwood thereupon sailed away
upon a Dutch ship and came to Holland, where he found "his Majesty
that now is." Here he knelt, and invited that same Majesty to visit his
dominion of Virginia, and, if he liked it, there to rest, sovereign of
the Virginian people. But Charles still hoped to be sovereign in England
and would not cross the seas. He sent, however, to Sir William Berkeley
a renewal of his Governor's commission, and appointed Norwood Treasurer
of Virginia, and said, doubtless, many gay and pleasant things.

In Virginia there continued to appear from England adherents of the
ancient regime. Men, women, and children came until to a considerable
degree the tone of society rang Cavalier. This immigration, now lighter,
now heavier, continued through a rather prolonged period. There came now
to Virginia families whose names are often met in the later history
of the land. Now Washingtons appear, with Randolphs, Carys, Skipwiths,
Brodnaxes, Tylers, Masons, Madisons, Monroes, and many more. These
persons are not without means; they bring with them servants; they are
in high favor with Governor and Council; they acquire large tracts
of virgin land; they bring in indentured labor; they purchase African
slaves; they cultivate tobacco. From being English country gentlemen
they turn easily to become Virginia planters.

But the Virginia Assembly had thrown a gauntlet before the victorious
Commonwealth; and the Long Parliament now