h the
Council in the Court Room of the State House. When all were seated he
stood up and said: "If there be joy in the presence of the angels over
one sinner that repenteth, there is joy now, for we have a penitent
sinner come before us. Call Mr. Bacon."

When Bacon stepped forward, fell on his knees, and handed in his
submission, the governor resumed: "God forgive you! I forgive you!"

"And all that were with him?" asked one of the Councillors.

"Yes, and all that were with him," replied the governor.

"Mr. Bacon,'" he added, "if you will live civilly but till next
Quarter Court, I will promise to restore you again to your place
there." But he decided not to wait so long, and the following day
permitted him to resume his seat.

We are left in no doubt as to why Berkeley was so lenient. "Why did I
not put him to death when I had him in my power?" he asked later. "I
must have been judge, jury, and executioner to have done it, for the
Assembly ... were all picked for him. The Council frightened with
hearing 2000 men were armed to deliver him." Philip Ludwell wrote Lady
Berkeley who a few weeks before had sailed for England, that she must
wonder why instead of death "such favors were heaped on." But it was
unavoidable, since hundreds of enraged men were within a day's march
of Jamestown, and the forces at hand to oppose them secretly in
sympathy with Bacon. "There is not a part of the country free from the
infection. Never was there so great a madness as the people generally
were seized with."

But in restoring Bacon to the Council Berkeley was no doubt actuated
as much by policy as by fear, for it was better to have him there
where he could keep his eye on him than in the House of Burgesses
where he might attempt to carry through reform legislation.

By this time anyone less stubborn and arbitrary than Berkeley would
have learned his lesson. On June 12, when Bacon was still in the
governor's power, Philip Ludwell wrote his brother: "It now looks like
general ruin for the country.... The governor seems determined to
leave for England.... If he does he leaves a lost country." Had he
given Bacon a commission to fight the Indians and permitted the
Assembly to carry out adequate reforms in the government, the people
might have been satisfied. But when the Assembly met things seemed to
be going in the old way.

If we are to understand the transactions of this historic Assembly it
is necessary to divide the session int