The Council now opened their correspondence with Lord Effingham, demanding the surrender of their late colleague.  On their part, it was marked by a deferential respect, which, it is evident, they did not feel, and which seems to denote a timid conviction of the favor of Virginia and the disgrace of Maryland in the personal feelings of the King.  It is manifest they were afraid of giving offence to the lordly governor of the neighboring Province.  On the part of Lord Effingham, the correspondence is cavalier, arrogant, and peremptory.

The Council write deploringly to his Lordship.  They “pray”—­as they phrase it—­“in humble, civil, and obliging terms, to have the prisoner safely returned to this government.”  They add,—­“Your Excellency’s great wisdom, prudence, and integrity, as well as neighborly affection and kindness for this Province, manifested and expressed, will, we doubt not, spare us the labor of straining for arguments to move your Excellency’s consideration to this our so just and reasonable demand.”  Poor Colonel Darnall, Poor Colonel Digges, and the rest of you Colonels and Majors,—­to write such whining hypocrisy as this!  George Talbot would not have written to Lord Effingham in such phrase, if one of you had been unlawfully transported to his prison and Talbot were your pleader!

The nobleman to whom this servile language was addressed was a hateful despot, who stands marked in the history of Virginia for his oppressive administration, his arrogance, and his faithlessness.

To give this beseeching letter more significance and the flattery it contained more point, it was committed to the charge of two gentlemen who were commissioned to deliver it in person to his Lordship.  These were Mr. Clement Hill and Mr. Anthony Underwood.

Effingham’s answer was cool, short, and admonitory.  The essence of it is in these words:—­“We do not think it warrantable to comply with your desires, but shall detain Talbot prisoner until his Majesty’s particular commands be known therein.”  A postscript is added of this import:—­“I recommend to your consideration, that you take care, as far as in you lies, that, in the matter of the Customs, his Majesty receive no further detriment by this unfortunate accident.”

One almost rejoices to read such an answer to the fulsome language which drew it out.  This correspondence runs through several such epistles.  The Council complain of the rudeness and coarse behavior of Captain Allen, and particularly of his traducing Lord Baltimore’s government and attempting to excite the people against it.  Lord Effingham professes to disbelieve such charges against “an officer who has so long served his King with fidelity, and who could not but know what was due to his superiors.”

Occasionally this same faithful officer, Captain Allen himself, reappears upon the stage.  We catch him at a gentleman’s house in Virginia, boasting over his cups—­for he seems to have paid habitual tribute to a bowl of punch—­that he will break up the government of Maryland, and annex this poor little Province of ours to Virginia:  a fact worth notice just now, as it makes it clear that annexation is not the new idea of the Nineteenth Century, but lived in very muddy brains a long time ago.  I now quit this correspondence to look after a bit of romance in a secret adventure.