The friends of the prisoner in England had procured and sent over his pardon; but the commissioners were privately informed that the Duke of York (afterward James II.) had sworn that "Bacon and Bland must die," and with this intimation of what would be agreeable to his royal highness, Bland was hung.

It was a revel of blood.

In almost every county, gibbets rose and made the wayfarer shudder and turn away at sight of their ghastly burdens.

In all, twenty-three persons were executed, and Charles II., disgusted with the tyranny of Berkeley, declared: "That old fool has hanged more men in that naked country than I have done for the murder of my father." Shortly after the execution of Mr.Edmund Cheeseman, and before the arrival of the English regiment, the first British troops ever brought to Virginia, Mr.Hugh Price, who was very active in capturing rebels, one evening brought in a miserable, half-starved, half-frozen young man, whom he had found lying in the snow, too feeble to fly or resist.

Mr.
Price was especially delighted with the capture, as the captive was Robert Stevens.
Old black Sam recognized the prisoner, and when he had been thrust in jail to await his trial, the old negro mounted a swift horse and rode all night across the country to the James River.