This young man was possessed of all the qualities requisite for a popular leader; he had a fine address, was singularly eloquent and persuasive, quick of apprehension, brave, yet discreet in action; “though young, master of those endowments which constitute a complete man; wisdom to apprehend, and discretion to execute.” The people demanded that they should defend themselves as well as assert their rights, and that Bacon should have a commission as their leader. Five hundred men were ready to obey him. Bacon said that if another white man were murdered, he would march against the Indians with no other commission than his sword. Soon after, the Indians fell upon his own people and slew them. This determined him to action. But scarcely had he commenced his march against the Indians, than Berkeley, fearing the result of a leader of Bacon’s influence and address on the minds of an already disaffected people, proclaimed him and his followers rebels, and hired troops to go in pursuit of them. The wealthier portion of Bacon’s followers obeyed the summons to disperse, but he, with a small determined band, pursued his purpose. Meantime an insurrection in another part of the country compelled Berkeley to return to Jamestown, where he was met by the insurgents, who demanded the immediate dissolution of the assembly, which they regarded as the authors of the country’s calamities. Alarmed by the aspect of affairs, Berkeley acquiesced; the assembly was dissolved, and writs issued for a new election, in which Bacon, now having returned triumphant from his expedition against the Indians, was elected member for Henrico county. The new assembly, spite of the disfranchisement of the freemen, was one of a popular character, and the measures which they immediately introduced were liberal and reformatory, and by no means calculated to please the governor, who still continued to treat Bacon as a delinquent. Bacon, on his part, in order to conciliate the opposite faction, and to satisfy his aged and wealthy relative, acknowledged on one knee, at the bar of the house, his error in having taken up arms without a commission; and on this acknowledgment, Berkeley promised him a commission as commander-in-chief on the following Monday, that being Saturday. The town rang with acclamations, and he was again hailed by the populace as the defender of Virginia. [Illustration: BACON ADDRESSING THE COUNCIL.] But when, on the Monday, the granting of the commission was deferred by the governor, and so on for several days, Bacon began to apprehend that treachery was intended, which apprehensions also the elder Bacon seems to have seconded. He suddenly, therefore, withdrew from Jamestown, and warrants were secretly issued to seize him.