His plans were now suddenly interrupted by a report from Rappahannock County that Colonel Brent, who, it seems, had gone over to the Governor's side, was advancing upon him at the head of eleven hundred militia. No sooner had he heard this news than he ordered the drums to beat up his soldiers, under their colors, and told them of the strength of the approaching army, and of Brent's "resolution" to fight him, and "demanded theirs."
With their wonted heartiness, his men made answer in "shouts and acclamations, while the drums thunder a march to meet the promised conflict."
Thus encouraged, Bacon set out without delay to give the enemy even an earlier chance to unload his guns than he had bargained for. He had been on the march for several days when, instead of meeting a
hostile army, he was greeted with the cheerful tidings that Brent's followers, who were described as "men, not soldiers," had left their commander to "shift for himself." They had heard how the Rebel had beat the Governor out of town, and lest he should "beat them out of their lives," some of them determined to keep a safe distance from him, while most of them unblushingly deserted to him, deeming it the part of wisdom "with the Persians, to go and worship the rising sun."
Bacon now hastened back to Gloucester Court House to meet the county folk there, in accordance with his appointment. The cautious denizens of Gloucester, reckoning that in such uncertain times there might be danger in declaring too warmly for either the one side or the other, petitioned through Councillor Cole, who acted as spokesman, that they might be excused from taking the oath of fidelity, and "indulged in the benefit of neutrality." Lukewarmness in his service was a thing wholly new to Bacon, and utterly contemptible in his eyes. He haughtily refused to grant so unworthy a
request, telling those who made it that they put him in mind of the worst of sinners, who desired to be saved with the righteous, "yet would do nothing whereby they might obtain their salvation."
He was about to leave the place in disgust when one of the neutrals stopped him and told him that he had only spoken "to the horse"—meaning the troopers—and had said nothing to the "foot."
Bacon cuttingly made answer that he had "spoken to the men, and not to the horse, having left that service for him to do, because one beast would best understand the meaning of another."
Mr. Wading, a parson, not only refused to take the oath himself, but tried to persuade others against it, whereupon Bacon had him arrested, telling him that "it was his place to preach in the church—not in the camp," and that in the one place he might say what he pleased, in the other only what Bacon pleased, "unless he could fight better than he could preach."
It was clearly the clause regarding resistance of the English forces that made the