Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1905-08-31

I fXl u i pepper had any fnkling Of
ISssSa1 what was about to happen.
ESSXSSl Some were there who always
considered him to be one who feath-
cred his own nest with as little risk
as might be. regardless Of those over
and under him, and one who saw
when 1t behooved him to do so, and
was blind when it served his own
ends, even with the glare of a happen
ing in his eyes. And many considered
that he was in England when it seem
ed for his own best good without re
gard to the king or the colony, but
that matters not, at this date.
In truth, his was tick1ish position
between two fires If he remained in
| Virginia it was at great danger to
! himself, If he sided not with the in
surgents; and, on the other hand, there
was the certainty of his losing his gov
ernorship and his lands, and perhaps
his head, If be went to tobacco cutting
with the rest of US. He was without
doubt better off on the high sea, which
is a sort of neutral place of nature, be-
yond the reach, for the time, Of mobs
or scepters, unless one falls in with q
black flag.
At all events, off sailed my Lord Cul-
4 pepper, leaving Sir Henry Chichely as
lieutenant governor, and verify he
might as well have left weather.
cock as that well intentioned but PHI
able gentleman. Give him but a head
wind over him and he would wax
fierce to order, and well he served the
government in the Bacon uprising, but
leave him to his own will and back
and forth he swung with great buster
! but no stability. None of the colony,
least of all the militia, stood in awe
of Sir Henry Chichely, nor regarded
him as more than figurehead of au-
thority when my Lord Culpeper had
set sail
The morning of the day after the
sailing. the people of jamestown whom
one happened to meet on the road had
a strange expression of countenance,
! and / doubt not that man skilled in
such matters could have read as truly
1 the signs of an eruption Of those
forces of human passion in the hearts
of men as of an earthquake by the
belching forth of smoke and fire from
the mouth of volcano.
Everybody looked at his neighbor with
either glare Of doubt and wariness or
with covert understanding, and some
there We're who had pale seriousness
of demeanor from having a full COM
prehension of the situation and OF
what might come of 1t, though not IN
the least drawing back on that ac-
count, and some were all flushed and
glowing with eagerness and laughing
from sheer delight in danger and dar-
ing. and some were like stolid beasts
of the field watching the eye OF a
master, ready at its wink to leap forth
to the strain of labor or fury. Many
of these last were of our English la
borers, whom held in some sort OF
pity, and doubt as to whether 1t were
just and merciful to draw them into
such stew kettle, for In truth many
of them had not a pound of tobacco
to lose by the navigation act and nc
more interest in the uprising than had
the muskets stacked in Major Robert
Beyerly's first wife's tomb. Yet,
pray, what can men do without tools
and have not tools some glory OF their
own which we take small account OF
and yet which may be recompense to
them?
Early that morning the news spread
that Colonel Kemp of the Gloucester
militia and a troop of horse and foot
had been sent secretly against some
plant cutters in Gloucester county who
had arisen before US and had taken
prisoners some twenty-five caught IN
the act The news of the sending
came first, 1 think, from Major Rob
ert Beverly, the clerk of the assembly
4 who had withheld the knowledge fol
some time, inasmuch as he disliked the
SAVIOR of treachery, but being in his
cups that night before at Barry Up
/ per Branch out it came. Twas Dick
4 Barry who told me. fell In with
him and Captain Jaynes on the James
town road that morning. Colonel
4 Kemp hath ridden against the rioters
In Gloucester with foot and horse, by
order of the general court, and Bever
i ly hath been knowing to it all this
time" he said gloomily.
Then he added that man who
served on two sides had no strength
4 for either, and one who had raised bis
hand against Bacon had best been out
of the present cause. But Captain
Jaynes swore with one of his broad
sides Of mighty oaths that twas best
as twas, since Beverly had some In
fuence over the militia, and that ne
was safe enough not to turn traitor
with his great store Of tobacco al
stake, and that should the court pro
coed to extremes with the Gloucester
plant cutters such fame would lear
to life in Virginia as would choke Eng
land with the smoke of its burning.