The people were deeply angered by the brutality of the Governor and his puppet Assembly. Governor Notley, of Maryland, thought that, should a leader appear who was bold enough to risk his neck, "the commons of Virginia would enmire themselves as deep in rebellion as ever they did in Bacon's time."[15] Many a sullen planter eyed his fusil longingly, in the hope that Lawrence might emerge from the forests to head a new mutiny.[16] "The putrid humor of our unruly inhabitants are not so allayed, but that they do frequently vent themselves ... and were they not awed by the overruling hand of his Majesty would soon express themselves by violent acts," wrote Secretary Nicholas Spencer.[17] That the Assembly was not unconcerned at the danger is shown by their re-enacting in much the original form of several of Bacon's reform laws. Berkeley and his friends treated Jeffreys with contempt. "A pitiful little fellow with a periwig," Philip Ludwell called him.[18] But it took a woman's spite to give him the greatest insult. When the commissioners heard that at last Berkeley was about to leave for England, they called on him at Green Spring. On leaving they found the Governor's coach waiting for them at the door. They did not realize that Lady Berkeley was peeping through "a broken quarrel of glass to observe how the show looked." But they were horrified to learn on reaching their destination that the coachman was the "common hangman." "The whole country rings of ... the public odium and disgrace cast on us, as the Exchange itself shortly may," they wrote.[19] It was on May 5, 1677, that Berkeley sailed for England on the _Rebecca_. The passage, though quick, was a terrible one for him. As he paced the deck, he could but reflect that the time was at hand when he must account to his royal master, not only for the failure of his administration, but for his flagrant disobedience. By the time he reached England the "tedious passage and grief of mind" had reduced him to great weakness. But he pleaded for an opportunity to "clear his innocency." If it is true, as was whispered about, that word reached his ears that the King had said that that old fool had hanged more men in that naked country than he for the murder of his father, it must have broken his heart. He died on July 13, 1677, and was interred at Twickenham.