rters in Jamestown,
Lawrence, Drummond, Hansford, and others, came hastily to his camp,
saying that they had been obliged to flee for safety, as Sir William was
back again, with eighteen ships in the river and eight hundred men he
had gathered in the eastern counties.

The affair had now come to a focus. It was fight, or yield and be
treated as a traitor. Bacon resolved to fight, and he found many to back
him in it, for he soon had a force collected. How many there were we do
not know. Some say only one hundred and fifty, some say eight hundred;
but however that be, he marched with them on Jamestown, bringing his
Indian captives with him. Rebels and Royalists the two parties were now
called; people and tyrant would have been better titles, for Bacon was
in arms for the public right and had the people at his back.

The old governor was ready. While in Accomac he had taken and hung two
friends of Bacon, who had gone there to try and capture him. He asked
for nothing better than the chance to serve Bacon in the same way. His
ships, armed with cannon, now lay in the river near the town. A
palisade, ten paces wide, had been built across the neck of the
peninsula in which Jamestown stood. Behind it lay a strong body of armed
men. Berkeley felt that he had the best of the situation, and was
defiant of his foes.

It was at the end of a September day when Bacon and his small army of
"rebels" arrived. Springing from his horse, he led the tired men up to
the palisades and surveyed the governor's works of defence. Then he
ordered his trumpeter to sound defiance and his men to fire on the
garrison. There was no return fire. Sir William knew that the assailants
were short of provisions, and trusted to hunger to make them retire. But
Bacon was versed in the art of foraging. At Green Spring, three miles
away, was Governor Berkeley's fine mansion, and from this the invading
army quickly supplied itself. The governor afterwards bitterly
complained that his mansion "was almost ruined; his household goods, and
others of great value, totally plundered; that he had not a bed to lie
on; two great beasts, three hundred sheep, seventy horses and mares, all
his corn and provisions, taken away." Evidently the "rebels" knew
something about the art of war.

This was not all, for their leader adopted another stratagem not well in
accordance with the rules of chivalry. A number of the loyalists of the
vicinity had joined Berkeley, and Bacon sent