The overweening confidence of the people of Virginia in themselves was shown in the remark of Bacon that “one Virginian was equal to four red-coats.” Middle Plantation, however, witnessed a sad sight some months later. The hero of the people had succumbed to disease, and Sir William Berkeley was again in power. Among those who supported Bacon with their counsel and sympathy, though not with arms, was William Drummond, first Governor of North Carolina, and here at Middle Plantation he expiated his offence on the gallows. The circumstances surrounding the execution were unusually affecting. Tried by a drumhead court-martial, he was condemned, stripped, the ring torn from his finger, sentenced at one o’clock and hanged at four. Berkeley, however, did not long exult in his power, for the British Government recalled him to England, where he soon died. Jamestown with all the public buildings had been destroyed during the course of the war. The suggestion was now offered to make Middle Plantation the capital, but was not adopted, and Jamestown was again restored. [Illustration: COLLEGE OF WILLIAM AND MARY.] In 1683, a handsome brick church was erected at Middle Plantation, and fifteen years later the “old fields” in front of the town were selected as the site for the “Royall Colledge” of William and Mary. Then in 1698, the State House at Jamestown falling again a victim to flames, Governor Francis Nicholson proposed to carry out the original suggestion of making the Middle Plantation the seat of government. The Legislature seconded him in this, stating in the preamble to their act that “the Middle Plantation had been found by constant experience to be healthy and agreeable to the constitutions of the inhabitants of this, his Majesty’s, colony and dominion;” that “its air was serene and temperate,” and that “its land was dry and champaign, and plentifully stored with wholesome springs.” Soon there rose at Middle Plantation a building in the shape of an “H,” the first “Capitol” so called in the United States (the term “State House” being used in the other colonies), then a palace for the governor, a theatre, the first also in English America, for the enacting of tragedies and comedies, an armory for the care of the public arms and ammunition, a public prison, the first hospital for the insane in America, and other buildings--all of brick. In honor of the reigning monarch the name of the place was in 1699 changed to that of Williamsburg, for which a city charter, in 1722, was obtained in the name of King George I., and under the seal of the Colony. Thenceforward, the history of Williamsburg became the history of Virginia--for here until 1779 resided the Governor of the Colony, and here were held the sessions of the Council and the House of Burgesses, and the sessions of the Supreme Court. [Illustration: Jacobus Blair THE FOUNDER OF WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE. ]