ave been well for Bacon had he chosen to ride down to
Jamestown with a heavy escort. Instead he decided on the easier and
usual method of travel by boat, and so set out in his sloop with
forty armed men. On June 6, when they came abreast Jamestown, they
were fired on by the guns of the fort. So they turned about and sailed
further up the river. With the coming of darkness Bacon, with twenty
of his men, rowed ashore, and held a long conference with Richard
Lawrence and William Drummond, Berkeley's inveterate enemies. It is
obvious that Bacon had known these men before. It is even possible
that he had boarded at Mrs. Lawrence's tavern while a member of the
Council, and that her husband had done his best to turn him against
Sir William with charges of arbitrary and corrupt government.

One wishes that one might have sat in on that night meeting. What did
the young popular leader discuss with these two embittered men? The
Indian war beyond doubt. But also Berkeley's "French despotism," and
how best to curb it. With an Assembly hostile to Berkeley in session,
Lawrence and Drummond must have recognized their chance. In fact
Berkeley had warned the Burgesses not to be misled by these "two
rogues." So it seems extremely probable that they drilled Bacon on
what measures to propose when he took his seat in the House.

At early dawn, when Bacon was returning, he was discovered and chased
up the river by several armed boats. He seems to have reached his
sloop, but when he tried to escape up the river, he was forced under
the guns of the _Adam and Eve_, a warship commanded by Captain Thomas
Gardiner, and forced to surrender.

When Bacon was led before the governor, the old man exclaimed: "Now I
behold the greatest rebel that ever was in Virginia."

Then, after a pause, he asked: "Mr. Bacon, have you forgot to be a
gentleman?"

"No, may it please your honor."

"Then, I'll take your parole."

Soon after this scene Bacon had a conference with his cousin in which
the latter pleaded with him to make his submission and give up the
idea of reforming the government and going out to fight the Indians.
If he would promise to do so, he said, he would turn over to him a
part or his estate and leave him the remainder after his own and his
wife's deaths. In the end the younger Bacon yielded and signed a paper
engaging to refrain from further disobedience to the government.

A few days later the governor summoned the Burgesses to meet wit