Page 280 - Early English Adventurers in the Middle East_Neat

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280 EARLY ENGLISH ADVENTURERS IN THE EAST

to the ground. The soldiers, taking their cue from their 1
leader, discharged their pistols, mortally wounding Dawes.
Samebrooke, who had escaped injury by some miracle, ran
forward to the help of the Agent and was promptly knocked
down and secured by the soldiers. Meanwhile, Nathaniel
Foxcroffc, having obtained his pistols from his room on the ■
ground floor, appeared on the scene with the object of making
a good fight on his own account. In a brief space of time,
however, he was also secured.
The revolution was now complete. It only remained for
Winter to give effect to it by assuming office. This he did
i by making a solemn declaration that he had accepted the
I chief direction of affairs upon the unanimous request of
the Company’s officials and that he would discharge the
duties until it should be ordered otherwise either by the
plurality of the Council or by the Court. Almost simul­
taneously Winter forwarded to the Directors a dispatch
seeking to vindicate his action on the ground of the traitor­
ous and seditious conduct of the Foxcrofts. He also wrote
to the King, to the Archbishop of Canterbury and to the
Royal Commander at Bombay, giving a narrative of the
course of events.
When the facts were known in England the Directors
sought the intervention of the King to secure the with­
drawal of Winter from his usurped position. Armed with
a Royal proclamation promising a pardon to Winter and his
accomplices if they surrendered peacefully, an Agent named
Clavell was sent out to arrange matters. Meanwhile,
the Winter faction had been strengthened in their resolve
to maintain their position by the support they had received
from the Royal Commander in Bombay, who had gone the
length of issuing a proclamation denouncing the Foxcrofts