When Ingram and Walkelett surrendered, these "arch rebels" were stationed on the south side of the York River, at a place called Brick House. When they heard of Ingram's intended desertion, they made desperate but futile efforts to prevent his designs. Failing in this, they determined to gather around them the remnants of the rebel forces and march towards the frontier, in hopes of kindling anew the waning spirit of resistance. "They sent downe to Coll: Bacons to fetch of the Gard there, under ... Whaly, to reinforce their own strength." Whaly, whose position was more exposed than their own, promptly obeyed, and succeeded in bringing off his force with "the last remains of Coll: Bacon's Estate". The rebel leaders now mustered about three hundred men, and with these they retreated through New Kent, "thinking (like the snow ball) to increase by their rouleing". "But finding that in stead of increasing there number decreast; and that the Moone of there fortune was now past the full, they broke up howse-keeping, every one shifting for him selfe."[714]
And now the chief rebels were hunted down like wild beasts by the Governor's troops. Thomas Hall, formerly clerk of the New Kent county court, Thomas Young, Major Henry Page, and a man named Harris were captured and led before Sir William. They were all tried by court martial, on shipboard off Tindall's Point, convicted of treason, and at once sent to their execution.[715]
A few days later Drummond was found, exhausted and half starved, hiding in Chickahominy swamp.[716] When he was brought before the Governor, that resentful old man could not restrain his joy. He is said to have "complimented him with the ironicall sarcasm of a low bend", declaring that he was more welcome than any other man in Virginia, or even his own brother.[717] The next day Berkeley went to Colonel Bray's house and here Drummond was conducted on foot to stand his trial. "In his way thither he complained very much that his Irons hurt him, and ... expressed abundance of thankes for being permitted to rest himselfe upon the Roade, while he tooke a pipe of Tobacco."[718] But he refused the offer of a horse, saying he would come soon enough to his death on foot.
At his trial he was treated with brutal harshness, his clothes stripped from his back and his ring torn from his finger. Although the rebellion was now over, he was denied jury trial, and was condemned by court martial after a hearing of but half an hour. Some months later, when this matter came to the attention of the English Privy Council, the Lord Chancellor exclaimed that "he knew not whether it were lawful to wish a person alive, otherwise he could wish Sir William Berkeley so, to see what could be answered to such barbarity".[719]
Thus ended the rebellion. Apparently it had accomplished nothing for the cause of liberty or the relief of the oppressed commons. Few of the abuses that had caused the people to take arms had been rectified. The taxes were heavier than ever, the Governor was more severe and arbitrary. English troops were on their way to the colony to enforce submission and obedience. Charles II, irritated at the independent spirit of the Virginians, was meditating the curtailment of their privileges and the suppression of their representative institutions. Yet this attack of an outraged people upon an arbitrary and corrupt government, was not without its benefits. It gave to future Governors a wholesome dread of the commons, and made them careful not to drive the people again into the fury of rebellion. It created a feeling of fellowship among the poor planters, a consciousness of like interests that tended to mould them into a compact class, ready for concerted action in defense of their rights. It gave birth in the breasts of many brave men to the desire to resist by all means possible the oppression of the Stuart kings. It stirred the people to win, in their legislative halls, victories for the cause of liberty, as real as those which Bacon and his followers had failed to secure on the field of battle.
CHAPTER VII
The Period of Confusion
When the news reached England that the common people of Virginia were in open revolt against their Governor, and had driven him from his capital, the King was not a little surprised and alarmed. The recollection of the civil war in England was still fresh enough in his memory to make him tremble at the mutterings of rebellion, even though they came from across the Atlantic. Moreover, since the customs from the Virginia tobacco yielded many thousand pounds annually, he could but be concerned for the royal revenue. If the tumults in the colony resulted in an appreciable diminution in the tobacco crop, the Exchequer would be the chief loser. Nor did the King relish the expense of fitting out an army and a fleet for the reduction of the insurgents.
His anxiety was increased by lack of intelligence from the colonial government. Several letters telling of Bacon's coercion of the June Assembly had reached him, but after that months passed without word from the Governor or the Council. From private sources, however, came reports of "uproars so stupendous" that they could hardly find belief.[720] It was rumored in England that Sir William had been defeated, driven out of the colony, and "forced to lie at sea".[721]