Produced by Curtis Weyant, Joseph R. Hauser and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.) +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ | Transcriber's Note: | | This text uses UTF-8 (unicode) file encoding. If the apostrophes | | and quotation marks in this paragraph appear as garbage, you may | | have an incompatible browser or unavailable fonts. First, make sure| | that your browser’s “character set” or “file encoding” is set to | | Unicode (UTF-8). You may also need to change the default font. | | | +--------------------------------------------------------------------+ Hansford: A TALE OF BACON'S REBELLION. BY ST. GEORGE TUCKER. Rebellion! foul dishonouring word— Whose wrongful blight so oft has stained The holiest cause that, tongue or sword Of mortal ever lost or gained. How many a spirit, born to bless, Hath sank beneath that withering name; Whom but a day's, an hour's success, Had wafted to eternal fame! MOORE. RICHMOND, VA.: PUBLISHED BY GEORGE M. WEST BOSTON: PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO. 1857. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, BY GEORGE M. WEST, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Virginia. PREFACE. It is the design of the author, in the following pages, to illustrate the period of our colonial history, to which the story relates, and to show that this early struggle for freedom was the morning harbinger of that blessed light, which has since shone more and more unto the perfect day. Most of the characters introduced have their existence in real history—Hansford lived, acted and died in the manner here narrated, and a heart as pure and true as Virginia Temple's mourned his early doom. In one of those quaint old tracts, which the indefatigable antiquary, Peter Force, has rescued from oblivion, it is stated that Thomas Hansford, although a son of Mars, did sometimes worship at the shrine of Venus. It was his unwillingness to separate forever from the object of his love that led to his arrest, while lurking near her residence in Gloucester. From the meagre materials furnished by history of the celebrated rebellion of Nathaniel Bacon the following story has been woven.