CHAPTER I.
CHAPTER II.
CHAPTER III.
CHAPTER IV.
CHAPTER V.
CHAPTER VI.
CHAPTER VII.
CHAPTER VIII.
CHAPTER IX.
CHAPTER X.
CHAPTER XI.
CHAPTER XII.
CHAPTER XIII.
CHAPTER XIV.
CHAPTER XV.
CHAPTER XVI.
The romance of history pertains to no human annals more strikingly thanto the early settlement of Virginia. The mind of the reader at oncereverts to the names of Raleigh, Smith, and Pocahontas. The traveller'smemory pictures in a moment the ivy-mantled ruin of old Jamestown.
About the year 16—, the city of Jamestown, then the capital ofVirginia, was by no means an unapt representation of the Britishmetropolis; both being torn by contending factions, and alternatelysubjected to the sway of the Roundheads and Royalists.
First came the Cavaliers who fled hither after the decapitation of theirroyal master and the dispersion of his army, many of whom becamepermanent settlers in the town or colony, and ever afterwards influencedthe character of the state.
These were the first founders of the aristocracy which prevails inVirginia to this day; these were the immediate ancestors of thatgenerous, fox-hunting, wine-drinking, duelling and reckless race of men,which gives so distinct a character to Virginians wherever they may befound.
A whole generation of these Cavaliers had grown up in the colony duringthe interregnum, and, throughout that long period, were tolerated bythose in authority as a class of probationers. The Restoration was nosooner announced, however, than they changed places with their latesuperiors in authority. That stout old Cavalier and former governor, SirWilliam Berkley (who had retired to the shades of Accomack,) was nowcalled by the unanimous voice of the people, to reascend the vice-regalchair.
Soon after his second installation came another class of refugees, inthe persons of Cromwell's veteran soldiers themselves, a few of whomfled hither on account of the distance from the court and the magnitudeof their offences against the reigning powers. It will readily beperceived even by those not conversant with the primitive history of theAncient Dominion, that these heterogeneous materials of Roundheads andCavalie