XIIL

THE OUTFLAME.

VIRGINIA was warned of what was coming by three ominous presages: one, "a large comet streaming like a horse-tail westward;" another, "fflights of wild pigeons nigh a quarter of the mid-hemisphere, and of their length was no visible end," which reminded old planters of the same phenomenon just before they were attacked by Opechancanough; and the third presage was "swarms of flies about an inch long, and as big as the top of a man's little finger, which ate the new-sprouted leaves from the tops of the trees." There could be no manner of doubt that these ominous apparitions of comets, pigeons, and locusts foretold disaster; and in 1676 the furies duly descended on unhappy Virginia.

The Great Rebellion which now flamed out is so curious and important an event that it deserves minute attention. We may pass over whole decades of Virginia history without losing much. The wrangles of governors, and assemblies, and all the petty incidents of the times, are of no importance or interest. But here, every hour is crowded with events full of strong passion and shaping great issues. The figures are heroic; the dénoûment tragic. This Rebellion is the most striking occurrence in American history, for the first century and a half after the settlement of the country. It was armed defiance of England, and bore a curiously close resemblance to the passionate struggle which had preceded it on English soil. Here, as there, the people rose against oppression, levied armies, chose a leader,

fought battles, and succumbed at last, and were punished by shot or halter. Thus this singular American revo lution of the seventeenth century, following its English prototype, is an event thrusting itself upon the attention, and it is necessary to follow it in detail. Twenty years of the Commonwealth and the Restoration have been summed up in a general statement. Twenty weeks of this year, 1676, will contain more matter to instruct and interest.

The central figure of the great military and political drama which now began was a young Englishman who had come to live in Virginia a few years before, Nathaniel Bacon. He had "not yet arrived to thirty years," and when the rebellion began was probably about twenty-eight. His family seem to have belonged to the English gentry, as he was a cousin of Lord Culpeper, and married a daughter of Sir John Duke. He was said to have "run out his patrimony in England and exhausted the most part of what he brought to Virginia," whither he had come about 1672, and settled at "Curles" on upper James River, below Varina. One of his family had preceded him, and "as a member of the King's Council,- Nathaniel Bacon, Sr., "a very rich, politick man and childless, who des signed him for his heir."

The high estimate of Bacon's ability may be seen from his appointment to a place in the Council. This was a position of great dignity, rarely conferred upon any but men of mature age and large estate; and Bacon was still young, and his estate only respectable. H personal character is seen on the face of his public career. He was impulsive and subject to fits of passion. or, as the old writers say, "of a precipitate disposition.'

When he grew angry he was "impetuous (like delirious)," and tossed his arms and stormed, as at Jamestown, where he cried violently: "Damn my blood! I'll kill Governor, Council, Assembly, and all; and then I'll sheathe my sword in my own heart's blood!" When calm he was extremely courteous; in an interview with one of the Burgesses, he "came stooping to the ground, and said, 'Pray, sir, do me the honor to write a line for me.' His personal praises were sounded even by people who had no sympathy with his public proceedings. They described him as " a man of quality and merit, brave and eloquent, but a young man, yet he was master and owner of those inducements which constitute a compleat man (as to intrinsecalls), wisdom to apprehend and discretion to chuse." This picture does not seem to have been overdrawn. Bacon soon became immensely popular, and was "crowned the Darling of the people's hopes and desires, as the only man fit in Virginia to put a stop to the bloody resolution of the Heathen," the Indian massacres.

This is the portrait, if not of a "compleat man," at least of a complete popular leader. Young, ardent, violent when aroused, but amiable and cordial at other times, recklessly brave, extremely politic, of remarkable eloquence as a public speaker, this was a man fitted by his very faults to become the head of a popular movement, which always demands that its leader shall not be a person of negative traits. As to Bacon's motives, it is improbable that his reduced fortunes had anything to do with his career, since he had nothing to gain by the rising, which he must have seen would probably lead to the confiscation of his estate and the loss of his head. Add the further fact that men like himself rarely look

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to profit, and nearly always to fame. Bacon, no doubt, acted under the spur of indignation, and with a natural enjoyment of the fact of leadership. And yet he was said not to be the real leader. He was compared to a wheel agitated by the weight of thoughtful Mr. Lawrence," an astuter man. But if thoughtful Mr. Lawrence, or any one else, agitated the wheel, its momentum soon came to direct the whole machinery.

This is an outline of the man who is going to become the Virginia Cromwell. In May, 1676, Bacon is at his Curles plantation, just below the old City of Henricus, living quietly on his estate with Elizabeth, his wife. He has another estate in the suburbs of the present city of Richmond, the situation of which is pointed out by the name of "Bacon Quarter Branch," which is still used. Here his servants and an overseer live, and he can easily go thither in a morning's journey on horseback or in his barge, unless he objects to being rowed seven miles around the Dutch Gap peninsula. Such is his position in the spring of this year. When not visiting his upper plantation, or attending the Council at Jamestown, he is at Curles living the life of a planter; entertaining his neighbors; denouncing the trade-laws and the grants to Arlington and Culpeper, the Governor for his lukewarmness in defending the borderers from the Indians, with a word, perhaps, to the more trifling wrong of disfranchising the freedmen. On these grievances he no doubt enlarges, over the walnuts and the wine, to his visitors, his "precipitate impetuous disposition" leading him to cry out especially at the Indian policy; for he is "a gentleman with a perfect antipathy to Indians." The report is that they mean to renew their outrages on the upper waters of the rivers; if they as

sail him he will make war on them, with or without authority, "commission or no commission."

The hour was at hand when this resolution of Bacon's was to be tested. Suddenly intelligence reached him (May, 1676) that the Indians had attacked his estate at the Falls, killed his overseer and one of his servants, and were going to carry fire and hatchet through the frontier. The planters ran to arms, and hastened from house to house to combine against these dangerous enemies. All was confusion, and the chronicle sums up the chief difficulty, they were "without a head." Who was to lead them? It was a serious question, since it was doubtful if Governor Berkeley would commission anybody. But the Indians were still ravaging the country; a crowd of armed horsemen had assembled; and Bacon was clamorously called to take command. His energy was well known, and the savages had attacked his lands; so he was offered the leadership, and at once accepted it. He made a speech full of "bold and vehement spirit," which one of the old historians is obliging enough to reconstruct for us from his imagination; enlarged on "the grievances of the times,"-an ominous indication of coming events; and making publication of the cause of the assemblage, sent to Governor Berkeley asking for a commission.

Thus, all things up to this moment were done decently and in order. They would await Sir William's reply, to govern themselves accordingly or not. It came promptly. Berkeley did not refuse the commission, but, what amounted to the same thing, he did not send it. Mr. Bacon was notified in a "polite and complimentary" manner that the times were troubled; that the issue of his business might be dangerous; that, unhappily, the