l master's
commands, which all his life he had considered sacred, reveals to us
vividly his furious temper at this juncture. The humiliation and
indignities he had experienced during the Rebellion had deprived him of
all prudence.

Had Colonel Jeffreys been a man of force he would not have submitted to
this juggling with the King's commands. With a thousand British troops
at his back, he could easily have arrested Sir William and forced him to
take ship for England. Although this would have been harsh treatment for
one that had so long served the King, it was fully justified by the
Governor's flagrant disobedience. And it would have relieved the colony
of the presence of a man whose inhuman cruelty had rendered him odious
to the people. But Jeffreys knew that the Governor's brother, Lord John
Berkeley, was high in the King's favor, and might take revenge should he
resort to violent measures. So he contented himself with writing home
his complaints, and sat quietly by, while Berkeley carried to completion
his principal designs.

The Governor was deeply displeased with the King's proclamation of
pardon. Should he publish it at once, as he was ordered to do, it would
greatly hinder him in his work of revenge and render more difficult his
illegal seizures and confiscations. Since the pardon excepted only
Bacon, under its terms such notorious rebels as Robert Jones, or Whaly,
or even Lawrence, might come in out of the wilderness and demand
immunity. This Berkeley was determined should not be. He thought at
first of suppressing the pardon entirely, and of setting out one of his
own based upon it, excepting the most notorious rebels.[751] The
commissioners urged him to publish the papers unchanged, as the King
would undoubtedly resent any attempt to frustrate his intentions.[752]
And they insisted that there should be no delay. "Observing the
generality of the people to look very amazedly one upon another", at the
arrival of the English soldiers, as though dreading a terrible revenge
by the King, they thought it highly desirable to "put them out of their
paine".[753] It was, they declared, by no means unlikely that a new
rebellion would break out, for the people were still deeply dissatisfied
and "murmured extremely".

After several days of hesitation, Berkeley decided to issue the King's
proclamation unchanged. Accordingly, on the tenth of February, to the
great relief of "the trembling people", the printed copies brought