In the midst of this confusion and lawlessness Berry and Moryson, with a part of the fleet and seventy of the English soldiers, arrived in the James River.[738] They had left Portsmouth November the nineteenth, but it was January the twenty-ninth before they reached Virginia.[739] Without waiting for Jeffreys and the main body of the fleet, they notified the Governor of their arrival and requested an immediate conference. Berkeley came aboard their flag-ship, the Bristol, February the first, where he was notified of their mission and intrusted with official letters.[740] He poured into the ears of the commissioners the recital of the exciting events of the past months—the destruction of Jamestown, Bacon's death, the surrender of Ingram and Walkelett, the execution of the leading rebels, the return of "the poore Scattered Loyal party to their ruined homes".[741] Although peace had been restored not three weeks before, he pretended astonishment that the King had thought it necessary to send soldiers to his aid.
Nor could he conceal his irritation at the mission of Berry and Moryson. That Charles should think it necessary to make an investigation of affairs in Virginia betokened a lack of confidence in the Governor. Berkeley's friends claimed, no doubt truly, that he was the author of every measure of importance adopted by the government of Virginia. An inquiry into conditions in the colony could but be an inquiry into his conduct. And the Governor, perhaps, knew himself to be guilty of much that he did not wish to have exposed before his royal master.
Moreover, Berkeley was not in the humor to brook interference at this juncture. He was inexorably resolved that the chief rebels should be brought to the gallows and that his own followers should be rewarded for their faithfulness. If the commissioners intended to block these measures, or protest against his actions when in violation of law, they might expect his bitter hostility.
Before the commissioners had been in Virginia two weeks their relations with the Governor became strained. The disposing of the "delinquents Estates", they announced, must be referred to the King. Loyal sufferers should not secure restitution except by due process of law. Seizures of tobacco and other goods must stop. Soon the meetings in the cabin of the Bristol became so stormy that the commissioners decided to hold all future communication with Sir William in writing. This they thought necessary because his "defect of hearing" not only made privacy impossible, but looked "angrily, by loud and fierce speaking".[742]
A few days later Colonel Jeffreys arrived with the remainder of the fleet. He and his fellow commissioners found the whole country so ruined and desolate that they experienced considerable difficulty in securing a place of residence.[743] As the Governor disobeyed flatly the King's commands to entertain them at Green Spring,[744] they were compelled to accept the hospitality of Colonel Thomas Swann and make their home at his seat on the James River.[745] On the twelfth of February, Jeffreys, Berry and Moryson went to Green Spring, where they held a long conference with Berkeley and the Council.[746] Jeffreys produced his commission, and read the clauses which instructed Berkeley to return immediately to England, and to resign the government into his hands.[747]
It is easy to imagine with what anger Berkeley and his Council received this command. If Sir William must embark for England and give up his government to this stranger, they would be foiled in their revenge in the very moment of triumph. Jeffreys would probably put an end to the wholesale plundering of the rebels: the illegal distribution of confiscated estates, the seizure of goods, the unjust compositions. It was true that Sir William had written the King in June asking his recall, but many things had happened in Virginia since he penned that letter. He was passionately opposed to leaving his government at this juncture.
And the old man's quick wit found an excuse for remaining in Virginia. The word "conveniency" in his orders gave him a loophole.[748] It was evident to all that the King wished him to return without delay, but Berkeley pretended to believe that this word had been inserted in order to permit him to use his own convenience in selecting the date of departure. The question was put to the Council and this body gave a ready and joyous support to the Governor's interpretation. Jeffreys and the commissioners begged them to consider that the word referred not to Sir William's "conveniency", but to that of the King's service, yet they would not heed them.[749] So Jeffreys went back to Swann's Point in discomfiture and the old Governor remained in Virginia for three months more to carry to completion his plans of restitution and revenge.[750] That he should have dared thus to trifle with his royal 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 over by the commissioners were made public.[754] But with them the Governor published a proclamation of his own, which limited and modified that of his Majesty.[755] Gyles Bland, Thomas Goodrich, Anthony Arnold, and all other rebels then in prison were to be denied the benefit of the pardon. The King's mercy was not to extend to Lawrence and Whaly; or to John Sturdivant, Thomas Blayton, Robert Jones, John Jennings, Robert Holden, John Phelps, Thomas Mathews,[756] Robert Spring, Stephen Earleton and Peter Adams; or "to John West and John Turner, who being legally condemned for rebellion made their escapes by breaking prison"; or to Sara Grindon, "who by her lying and scandalous Reports was the first great encourager and Setter on of the ignorant" people; or even to Colonel Thomas Swann, Colonel Thomas Bcale or Thomas Bowler, former members of the Council.[757] The commissioners thought it highly presumptuous in Berkeley thus to frustrate the King's wishes, and they were careful to let his Majesty know the Governor's disobedience, but the Council of Virginia endorsed all his actions and the people dared not disobey.