ading
men about him, it was believed, took occasion to foment the difference
between him and Bacon, envying a rising luminary that threatened to
eclipse them. This conduct is like that of some of the leading men in
Virginia who, one hundred years later, compelled Patrick Henry to resign
his post in the army.

Sir William Berkley sent his evasive reply to the application for a
commission, by some of his friends, and instructed them to persuade
Bacon to disband his forces. He refused to comply with this request, and
having in twenty days mustered five hundred men, marched to the falls of
the James. Thereupon the governor, on the 29th day of May, 1676, issued
a proclamation, declaring all such as should fail to return within a
certain time, rebels. Bacon likewise issued a declaration, setting
forth the public dangers and grievances, but taking no notice of the
governor's proclamation.[288:A] Upon this the men of property, fearful
of a confiscation, deserted Bacon and returned home; but he proceeded
with fifty-seven men. Sir William Berkley, with a troop of horse from
Middle Plantation, pursued Bacon as far as the falls, some forty miles,
but not overtaking him, returned to Jamestown, where the assembly was
soon to meet. During his absence the planters of the lower country rose
in revolt, and declared against the frontier forts as a useless and
intolerable burden; and to restore quiet they were dismantled, and the
assembly, the odious Long Parliament of Virginia, was at last dissolved,
and writs for a new election issued. This revolt in the lower country,
with which Bacon had no immediate connection, demonstrates how widely
the leaven of rebellion, as it was styled, pervaded the body of the
people, and how unfounded is the notion, that it was the result merely
of personal pique and ambition in Bacon. Had he never set his foot on
the soil of Virginia there can be little doubt but that an outbreak
would have occurred at this time. There was no man in the colony with
a brighter prospect before him than Bacon, and he could hardly have
engaged in this popular movement without a sacrifice of selfish
considerations, nor with out incurring imminent risk. The movement was
revolutionary--a miniature prototype of the revolution of 1688 in
England, and of 1776 in America. But Bacon, as before mentioned, with a
small body of men proceeded into the wilderness, up the river, his
provisions being nearly exhausted before he discovered the I