s lady, Madm.
Bray, Madm. Page, Madm. Ballard, and others) which the next morning he
presents to the view of there husbands and ffriends in towne, upon
the top of the smalle worke hee had cast up in the night; where he
caused them to tarey till he had finished his defense against his
enemies shott, ... which when completed, and the Governour
understanding that the gentle women were withdrawne in to a place of
safety, he sends out some 6 or 700 of his soulders, to beate Bacon out
of his trench."[89]

The fact that Bacon's family was one of great prominence in the colony
makes this ungallant action all the more significant. His uncle,
Nathaniel Bacon, was a leader in political affairs, being one of
Berkeley's most trusted advisers. He himself had been a member of the
Council. It is true that his harsh treatment of the ladies brought
upon him some censure, yet it is highly indicative of the lack of
chivalry of the times, that a gentleman should have been willing to
commit such a deed. How utterly impossible this would have been to
George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, typical Virginians a hundred
years later!

It remained to Berkeley, however, the so-called "Cavalier Governor"
of Virginia, to strike the most brutal blow at womanhood. After the
failure of Bacon's Rebellion, when the insurgents were being hunted
down by the implacable anger of the Governor, Major Chiesman, one of
the most prominent of the rebels, was captured. "When the Major was
brought into the Governours presence, and by him demanded, what made
him to ingage in Bacon's designs? Before that the Major could frame an
answer to the Governours demand; his wife steps in and tould his
honour that it was her provocations that made her husband joyne in the
cause that Bacon contended for; ading, that if he had not bin
influenced by her instigations, he had never don that which he had
done. Therefore (upon her bended knees) she desired of his honour,
that since what her husband had done, was by her means, and so, by
consequence, she most guilty, that she might be hanged, and he
pardoned." Had Berkeley had one atom of gallantry or chivalry in his
nature, he would have treated this unfortunate woman with courtesy.
Even though he condemned her husband to the gallows, he would have
raised her from her knees and palliated her grief as best he could
with kind words. That he spurned her with a vile insult shows how
little this "Cavalier" understood of the sacredness of