plunder", clamored for the desertion
of the place, fearing that the victorious rebels would soon burst in
upon them.[668]

"The next day Bacon orders 3 grate guns to be brought into the camp, two
whereof he plants upon his trench. The one he sets to worke against the
Ships, the other against the entrance into the towne, for to open a
pasage to his intended storm."[669] Had the rebels delayed no longer to
make an assault it seems certain they could have carried the palisades
with ease, taken many of the enemy, and perhaps captured the Governor
himself. The loyal soldiers were thinking only of flight. "Soe great was
the Cowardize and Basenesse of the generality of Sir William Berkeley's
party that of all at last there were only some 20 Gentlemen willing to
stand by him." So that the Governor, "who undoubtedly would rather have
dyed on the Place than thus deserted it, what with (the) importunate and
resistless solicitations of all was at last over persuaded, nay hurried
away against his will".[670] "Takeing along with him all the towne
people, and their goods, leaveing all the grate guns naled up, and the
howses emty", he left the place a prey to the rebels.[671] "So fearful
of discovery they are, that for Secrecy they imbarque and weigh anchor
in the Night and silently fall down the river."[672]

Early the next morning Bacon marched across the Sandy Bay and took
possession of the deserted town.[673] Here he learned that the Governor
had not continued his flight, but had cast anchor twenty miles below,
where he was awaiting a favorable opportunity to recapture the
place.[674] At the same time, news came from the north that Colonel
Brent, Bacon's former ally, was collecting troops in the counties
bordering upon the Potomac River, and would soon be on the march to the
Governor's assistance, with no less than a thousand men.[675] Should
this new army, by acting in concert with the fleet, succeed in blocking
Bacon up at Jamestown, the rebels would be caught in a fatal trap. The
peninsula could hardly be defended successfully against superior forces
by land and water, and they would be crushed between the upper and
nether millstones. On the other hand, should they desert the town, in
order to go out against Brent, Berkeley would undoubtedly return to take
possession of it, and all the fruits of their victory would be lost.

After long consultation with his chief advisors, Bacon decided to
destroy the town.[676] That very nig