nters Jamestown--Extorts a
Commission from the Governor--Proceedings of Assembly--Bacon
marches against the Pamunkies--Berkley summons Gloucester
Militia--Bacon countermarches upon the Governor--He escapes to
Accomac--Bacon encamps at Middle Plantation--Calls a
Convention--Oath prescribed--Sarah Drummond--Giles Bland
seizes an armed Vessel and sails for Accomac--His Capture--
Berkley returns to Jamestown--Bacon exterminates the Indians.

WITHIN three or four days after Bacon's escape, news reached James City
that he was some thirty miles above, on the James River, at the head of
four hundred men. Sir William Berkley summoned the York train-bands to
defend Jamestown, but only one hundred obeyed the summons, and they
arrived too late, and one-half of them were favorable to Bacon.
Expresses almost hourly brought tidings of his approach, and in less
than four days he marched into Jamestown unresisted, at two o'clock
P.M., and drew up his force, (now amounting to six hundred men,) horse
and foot, in battle array on the green in front of the state-house, and
within gunshot. In half an hour the drum beat, as was the custom, for
the assembly to meet, and in less than thirty minutes Bacon advanced,
with a file of fusileers on either hand, near to the corner of the
state-house, where he was met by the governor and council. Sir William
Berkley, dramatically baring his breast, cried out, "Here! shoot
me--fore God, fair mark; shoot!" frequently repeating the words. Bacon
replied, "No, may it please your honor, we will not hurt a hair of your
head, nor of any other man's; we are come for a commission to save our
lives from the Indians, which you have so often promised, and now we
will have it before we go." Bacon was walking to and fro between the
files of his men, holding his left arm akimbo, and gesticulating
violently with his right, he and the governor both like men distracted.
In a few moments Sir William withdrew to his private apartment at the
other end of the state-house, the council accompanying him. Bacon
followed, frequently hurrying his hand from his sword-hilt to his hat;
and after him came a detachment of fusileers, who, with their guns
cocked and presented at a window of the assembly chamber, filled with
faces, repeating in menacing tone, "We will have it, we will have it,"
for half a minute, when a well-known burgess, waving his handkerchief
out at the window, exclaimed, three or f