of desperate fortunes lately sprung up among them,
which easily seduced the willing minds of the people from their
allegiance, in the vain hopes of taking the country wholly out of his
majesty's hands into their own. Bacon never intended more by the
prosecution of the Indian war than as a covert to his villanies."

The commissioners, who assisted in the trial of these prisoners, now
proceeded to inquire into the causes of the late distractions; they sat
at Swan's Point. The insurgents, who comprised the great body of the
people of Virginia, had found powerful friends among the people of
England, and in parliament; and the commissioners discountenanced the
excesses of Sir William Berkley, and the loyalists, and invited the
planters in every quarter to bring in their grievances without fear.
Jeffreys, one of the commissioners, was about to succeed Governor
Berkley. In their zeal for investigation the commissioners seized the
journals of the assembly; and the burgesses in October, 1677, demanded
satisfaction for this indignity, declaring that such a seizure could not
have been authorized even by an order under the great seal, because
"they found that such a power had never been exercised by the king of
England"--an explicit declaration of the legislative independence of the
colony. Their language was stigmatized by Charles the Second as
seditious.[321:A]

The number of persons executed was twenty-three,[321:B] of whom twelve
were condemned by court-martial. The jails were crowded with prisoners,
and in the general consternation many of the inhabitants were preparing
to leave the country. During eight months Virginia had suffered civil
war, devastation, executions, and the loss of one hundred thousand
pounds,--so violent was the effort of nature to throw off the malady of
despotism and misrule. Charles the Second, in October, issued two
proclamations, authorizing Berkley to pardon all except Nathaniel Bacon,
Jr.; and afterwards another, declaring Sir William's of February, 1677,
not conformable to his instructions, in excepting others besides Bacon
from pardon, and abrogating it. Yet the king's commissioners assisted in
the condemnation of several of the prisoners. An act of pardon, under
the great seal, brought over by Lord Culpepper, was afterwards
unanimously passed by the assembly in June, 1680, and several persons
are excepted in it who were included in Sir William's "bloody bill" in
February, 1677.[321:C]

The peo