was buried by night, in a lonely spot; and although we have no description of the scene which took place, we may imagine it. His friends, no doubt, dug a grave secretly with their own hands, and then, when it was dark, placed the dead man's body in a wagon, and took it to the spot and buried it. If it was by moonlight, or even if the stars were shining, it must have been a strange and solemn sight. No doubt some clergyman was present and read prayers over the grave when the body was lowered into it, while his friends stood around with their hats off and their heads bent down in sorrow. Large stones were then laid on the coffin, the grave was filled up, and the grass was smoothed down in order to conceal it.

This was done so carefully that Bacon's grave was never discovered, and the wrath of Sir William Berkeley was not expended upon his enemy. He had the living to take revenge on, as I will show you in ending my story; but Bacon he could not reach. The body of that brave soldier was sleeping in the woods of Gloucester, and the great trees guarded the secret of his resting-place.

VI.

The "Great Rebellion," as Sir William Berkeley called it, was now over. When a famous leader dies, it is hard to find any one to take his place; and as soon as news came that Bacon was dead, his men returned to their homes in despair. A few kept up a show of resistance, but they soon gave way like the rest, and Sir William Berkeley marched back in triumph.

I have told you the character of this fiery old ruler. He was brave and determined, and had some other good qualities; but he was narrow-minded and cruel, and hated the "rebels " bitterly for defeating him; so he resolved to take a bloody revenge upon them.

Every friend of Bacon's whom he could lay his hands on was put to death. Thomas Hansford, a brave young planter, was one of these. He was captured, and, after a pretended trial, was at once hung, although he begged them to shoot him. Another was Captain Wilford, who fought hard not to be taken prisoner, and had one of his eyes put out by a bullet. When some one spoke of this he said it was no matter, as Sir William Berkeley would have him led to the gallows; and he too was soon hung. Another was Major Cheeseman, whose wife knelt before Sir William and begged her husband's life, telling him that she had persuaded him to join Bacon. In reply to all her tears and prayers, the governor, it is said, offered her a vulgar insult, instead of pitying her; and Major Cheeseman soon afterward died in prison. A more important prisoner still was William Drummond, one of Bacon's warmest friends. Sir William Berkeley hated him, and felt a cruel triumph when he was brought before him.

"Mr. Drummond," said the governor, in a sneering voice, "you are very welcome! I am more glad to see you than any man in Virginia! Mr. Drummond, you shall be hanged in half an hour!"

Drummond was tried at once; and as there was no trouble in proving that he had been one of the leaders of the "rebels," he was found guilty and at once hung. The governor hated him more than all the rest, and his property was at once seized; but the King of England, as soon as he heard of this, ordered it to be restored to Mrs. Drummond, his widow.

These were a few of the victims of Sir William's cruelty. Altogether more than twenty persons were hung; and Charles II. exclaimed when he heard of it,

"That old fool has hanged more men in that naked country than I did for the murder of my father!"

All the changes in the laws made by Bacon were now repealed, and Governor Berkeley found no enemies to oppose him. But he felt ill at ease. The people of Virginia hated him for his cruelty, and he had scarcely a friend in the whole colony. He therefore resolved to visit England, fearing, it seems, that he had as few friends there, and thinking that it would be better to go and defend himself. He therefore sailed for England, and his departure was a joyful event. The Virginians fired cannon and illuminated their houses, and he never afterward returned to the colony. When he got to England the king refused to see him, and this filled him with so much mortification that he soon afterward died. And that was the end of old Sir William Berkeley.

He and Bacon were two remarkable men, but Bacon was by far the greater. He was a fearless soldier, and a true lover of his country. He had nothing to win by fighting and everything to lose, for the governor would have hung him and seized upon all his property if he had defeated him. But his duty was plain to him. The Virginians were oppressed, and he meant to risk his life against their oppressor.

This was acting precisely as George Washington did a hundred years afterward. One succeeded, the other failed; but the man who does his duty is as great in failure as in success. Nathaniel Bacon did his, and has left a noble name in history.

4*

THE KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN HORSESHOE.

I.

I WILL now relate a romantic little incident which occurred in the summer of 1714, about thirty years after Bacon's death. This was the ride beyond the mountains of the "Horseshoe Knights," as they were afterward called; and I will give you, in the first place, a short account of the man who led them.

He was Alexander Spotswood, Governor of Virginia at the time, and his life had been adventurous. He was born on board a ship, in the Mediterranean Sea, in 1676, and it is not known how this singular event happened. But there seems to be no doubt about the truth of the statement, and he may have sailed about with his father, who probably commanded the ship, and thus acquired while he was young his love of adventure. As soon as he was old enough, he became a soldier in the English army under Marlborough, who was then fighting the French; and at a great battle, called Blenheim, he distinguished himself by his bravery, and was wounded by a cannon-ball. This occurred when he was about twenty-eight years of age; and as he was sent over to be Governor of Virginia when he was only thirty-four, you will see that he must have shown that he was a man of strong sense and firm charHe looked older than he really was, for that matter. His portrait is still to be seen in an old country-house in Virginia, with a picture of the field of Blenheim in the background; and this portrait shows that he was a tall,

acter.

strong man, with many wrinkles in his forehead, and a determined expression of countenance, which expressed his character.

As soon as Spotswood reached Virginia, he set to work to improve everything, and make the country as prosperous as possible. He had a curiously shaped magazine built in Williamsburg, the capital of the colony, to hold gunpowder to use in case of war; and this is still standing. He then built a good house for the governors to live in, and sent word to the few Indian tribes left that they might bring their boys to the college of "William and Mary," at Williamsburg, if they wished, where they would be educated free of expense. He next set about making iron for the use of the Virginia people.

This was very important. Iron, you know, is a metal that no one can do without, as axes, ploughs, and hundreds of other useful implements are made of it. The Virginians, like everybody else, required it, but they were obliged to send to England for it; and as England always aimed to make as much as she could out of her colonies, they had to pay a very high price for all that they bought. You now see why Governor Spotswood was anxious to show them how they might make iron for themselves, and not send to England and pay so much for it. When iron is in the ground it is mixed with earth and stones; and before it is of any use it is necessary to cleanse it, which is done by melting it in large furnaces built for the purpose. Spotswood knew that there was an abundance of iron in the soil of the colony, and built the furnaces, which proved perfectly successful. They were the first ever seen in America, and made him quite famous; and the people gave him the name of the "Tubal-cain of Virginia," an explanation of which will be found in the Book of Genesis,

These exertions for the good of the country made Gov