our times, "You shall have it,
you shall have it;" when, uncocking their guns, they rested them on the
ground, and stood still, till Bacon returning, they rejoined the main
body. It was said that Bacon had beforehand directed his men to fire in
case he should draw his sword. In about an hour after Bacon re-entered
the assembly chamber, and demanded a commission, authorizing him to
march out against the Indians. Godwyn, the speaker,[294:A] who was
himself a Baconian, as were a majority of the house, remaining silent in
the chair, Brewse, (or Bruce,)[294:B] the colleague of Bacon, alone
found courage to answer: "'Twas not in our province, or power, nor of
any other, save the king's vicegerent, our governor." Bacon,
nevertheless, still warmly urged his demand, and harangued the assembly
for nearly half an hour on the Indian disturbances, the condition of the
public revenues, the exorbitant taxes, abuses and corruptions of the
administration, and all the grievances of their miserable country.
Having concluded, and finding "no other answer, he went away
dissatisfied."

On the following day the governor directed the house to take measures to
defend the country against the Indians, and advised them to beware of
two rogues among them, meaning Lawrence and Drummond, who both lived at
Jamestown. But some of the burgesses, in order to effect a redress of
some of the grievances that the country labored under, made motions for
inspecting the public revenues, the collector's accounts, etc., when
they received pressing messages from the governor to meddle with nothing
else till the Indian business was disposed of. The debate on this matter
rose high, but the governor's orders were finally acquiesced in.

While the committee on Indian affairs was sitting, the Queen of
Pamunkey, a descendant of Opechancanough, was introduced into their
room. Accompanied by an interpreter and her son, a youth of twenty
years, she entered with graceful dignity. Around her head she wore a
plait of black and white wampum-peake, a drilled purple bead of shell,
three inches wide, after the manner of a crown. There is preserved at
Fredericksburg a silver frontlet, purchased from some Indians, with a
coat of arms, and inscribed "The Queen of Pamunkey," "Charles the
Second, King of England, Scotland, France, Ireland, and Virginia," and
"Honi soit qui mal y pense." She was clothed in a mantle of dressed
buckskin, with the fur outward, and bordered with a deep fr