for James City County. There the
youthful leader delivered another address to his men: "If ever you
have fought well and bravely, you must do so now.... They call us
rebels and traitors, but we will see whether their courage is as great
as their pretended loyalty. Come on, my hearts of gold, he who dies in
the field of battle dies in the bed of honor."

When Bacon arrived before Jamestown the place seemed impregnable. The
narrow isthmus which was the only approach to the town was defended by
three heavy guns, the ships in the river were ready to give support,
the Back Creek and a series of marshes protected the north shore. But
Bacon was not discouraged. All night long his men labored to throw up
a makeshift fortress of "trees, bush and earth" facing the isthmus, as
a protection should Berkeley's force sally out. When the governor saw
what was going on he ordered the ships and shallops to move up to fire
on the crude structure, while his soldiers let loose with repeated
volleys. Thereupon Bacon sent out parties of horse through the
adjacent plantations to bring in the wives of some of the governor's
supporters, Elizabeth Page, Angelica Bray, Anna Ballard, Frances
Thorpe and even Elizabeth Bacon, wife of his cousin, Nathaniel Bacon,
Senior. The terrified ladies were placed upon the ramparts, where they
would be in great peril should the firing be resumed, and kept there
until Bacon had completed the work and mounted his guns.

It was on September 15, that Berkeley's troops sallied out, formed in
front of Bacon's fort, and rushed forward, horse and foot "pressing
very close upon one another's shoulders." They made an excellent
target, so that when the rebels opened on them, those in front threw
down their arms and fled. Had Bacon pressed close on their heels he
might have taken the place, and with it Berkeley, and all his men. But
he held back and the opportunity was lost.

The governor was furious, and reviled his officers in "passionate
terms." But it should have been obvious to him that he could not trust
men who fought under compulsion, many of them in sympathy with Bacon.
"The common soldiers mutinied, and the officers did not do their whole
duty to suppress them," he wrote afterwards. The officers urged on him
the necessity of abandoning the town. "One night having rode from
guard to guard and from quarter to quarter all day long to encourage
the men, I went to bed," Berkeley said. "I was no sooner lain down but