Lawrence and Whaley with three others determined to risk torture at the hands of the Indians rather than fall into the hands of the governor. They were last seen on the extreme frontier, pushing on through the snow into the forest. We shall probably never know their fate. They may have died of hunger and exposure, they may have been killed by the Indians; it is barely possible that they found refuge in one of the northern colonies.
But though the fate of Lawrence and Whaley is shrouded in mystery, that of many others is known. The enraged governor drew up a long list of those he had marked for the gallows. When the reports of Berkeley's savagery reached Charles II, he is said to have remarked "That old fool has hanged more men in that naked country than I have for the murder of my father."
Drummond was found hiding in Chickahominy Swamp and brought before the governor at King's Creek. The vindictive old man made a low bow, saying, "Mr. Drummond, you are very welcome. I am more glad to see you than any man in Virginia. Mr. Drummond, you shall be hanged in half an hour." However, he decided to give him at least the pretence of a trial. But his ring was snatched from his finger, his clothes taken from his back, and he was kept overnight in irons. The next morning he was forced to walk, still in irons, in bitterly cold weather, all the way to Middle Plantation. There, after a brief hearing, in which he was not allowed to defend himself, he was hurried away to the scaffold. His widow and five children were driven out of their house and forced to flee into the woods and swamps, where they came near starvation.
When Anthony Arnold, who was one of the sturdiest supporters of the rebellion, was brought into court, he boldly defended the right of the people to resist oppression. "It is well known that I have no kindness for Kings," he told the court. "They have no rights but what they got by conquest and the sword, and he that can by force of the sword deprive them of it has as good and just a title to it as the King himself. If the King should deny to do me right I would make no more to sheathe my sword in his heart or bowels than of my mortal enemies." The court was sorry that the country was not "capable of executing the sentence peculiar to traitors according to the laws and custom of England." This was to hang the victim for several minutes, cut him down when still alive, rip him open, cut off his head, and then quarter him. So they contented themselves with hanging him in chains, "to be a more remarkable example than the rest."