Part 32 (1/2)
He was trembling in every limb, for he expected to be hurled from the house.
Robert went into the street in a sort of maze.
He felt a strange foreboding that all was not right, and that Giles Peram had some deep scheme on foot.
”I will kill the knave, if the governor should hang me for it the next moment,” he said in a fit of anger.
It was not long before Robert was at the house of Mr. Lawrence, where he met his friends Drummond and Cheeseman. The three were engaged in a close consultation as if discussing a matter of vital importance. They did not at first recognize Robert, who had grown to manhood; but as soon as he made himself known, they welcomed him back among them, and warm-hearted Cheeseman said:
”I know full well you can be relied upon in this great crisis.”
”What is the crisis?” Robert asked.
”We seem on the verge of some sort of a revolution. Virginia welcomed Charles II. and Governor Berkeley as the frogs welcomed the stork, and they, stork like, have begun devouring us.”
”I have heard something of the grievances of the people of Virginia; but I do not know all of them. What leads up to this revolution?”
Mr. Drummond answered:
”The two main grievances are the English navigation acts and the grant of authority to the English n.o.blemen to sell land t.i.tles and manage other matters in Virginia. Why, the king hath actually given to Lord Culpepper, a cunning and covetous member of the commission, for trade and plantations, and the earl of Arlington, a heartless spendthrift, 'all the dominion of land and water called Virginia, for the term of thirty-one years.' We are permitted by the trade laws to trade only with England in English s.h.i.+ps, manned by Englishmen.”
”Is it such a great grievance to the people?”
”It is foolish and injurious to the government as well as to ourselves.
The system cripples the colony, and, by discouraging production, decreases the English revenue. To profit from Virginia they grind down Virginia. Instead of friends, as we expected, on the restoration, we are beset by enemies, who seize us by the throat and cry: 'Pay that thou owest!'”
”To these grievances are added the confinement of suffrage to freeholders, which hath disfranchised a large number of persons,” put in Mr. Drummond.
”Also the failure of the governor to protect the frontier from the Indians,” added Mr. Cheeseman. ”These heathen have begun to threaten the colony.”
”What cause have they for taking up the hatchet?” asked Robert. Mr.
Cheeseman answered:
”Their jealousy was aroused by an expedition made by Captain Henry Batte beyond the mountains. Last summer there was a fight with some of the Indians. A party of Doegs attacked the frontier in Staffard and committed outrages, and were pursued into Maryland by a company of Virginians under Major John Was.h.i.+ngton. They stood at bay in an old palisaded fort. Six Indians were killed while bringing a flag of truce.
The governor said that even though they had slain his nearest relatives, had they come to treat with him he would have treated with them. The Indian depredations have been on the increase until the frontier is unsafe, and this spring, when five hundred men were ready to march against the heathen, Governor Berkeley disbanded them, saying the frontier forts were sufficient protection for the people.”
”Are they?” asked Robert.
”No.”
”Then why does he not send an army against them?”
”He is engaged in trafficking with the heathen and fears that he may lose, financially, by a war.”
”Is gain in traffic of more consequence than human life?”
”With him, it is.”
Robert was a lover of humanity, and in a moment he had taken sides. He was a republican and his fate was cast with Bacon, even before he had seen this remarkable man.