While the governor and the assembly were depriving the Virginian people of their franchises, and laying burdens on them grievous to be borne, Charles II., the monarch whom the aristocratical portion of the state regarded with reverential affection, was preparing to invade even their rights in no less unwelcome a manner than they had invaded the rights of the people. In 1669, the Northern Neck, as it is called, the district lying between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers, was granted to Lord Culpepper, “one of the most cunning and covetous men in England,” the same territory having, immediately after the execution of Charles I., been granted to a party of cavaliers as a refuge for royalists, whose long-established settlements were thus invaded. Nor did the invasion of rights end here. Four years afterwards, the same lavish monarch granted to the same Lord John Culpepper and to Henry, Earl of Arlington, one of the most extravagant of Charles’s courtiers, the husband of the king’s favourite, Lady Castlemaine, and esteemed to be the “best-bred man at court,” “all the dominion of land and water called Virginia for the full term of thirty-one years, together with all quit-rents, escheats, the power to grant land, and all other powers of absolute sovereignty.” The assembly was alarmed; and sent over deputies to beseech of the king to reconsider this grant, or to purchase it for the colony; for which purpose, as well as for the expenses of the deputies, an enormous poll-tax was imposed. Under this new grant, Berkeley’s commission as governor expired, but the aristocratic party voted him an increase of salary, and solicited his reappointment as governor for life; and he continued to hold office. The discontent of Virginia rose to a great height. The people, who had not their political or local gatherings, “now met in the solitude of the forests to discuss their grievances. They were ripe for insurrection; and, seeing the spirit that was in them, the men of wealth and consideration, who otherwise were stung by their own and their country’s wrongs to resistance, held aloof.” In the meantime, events were bringing matters to a crisis. And, as so singularly happens at times of public calamity and excitement, unusual natural occurrences are regarded as portentous omens, so now a large comet was visible in the sky, the tail of which streamed westward; flights of pigeons, such as had never been since the time of the former Indian wars, and which darkened the whole heavens, together with a fearful plague of flies, prepared the popular mind, as it were, for the calamities which were at hand.