Page:Victoria, with a description of its principal cities, Melbourne and Geelong.djvu/155

 when concealed in a tent, and fired upon, shot down as they attempted to escape."

Such are the accounts of the emeute. On the following day all was quiet, and ere a week had passed over the lesson thus taught to the insurgents entirely put a stop to their violent and outrageous opposition to the constituted authority over them. A general amnesty was declared; the martial law which had been proclaimed on the arrival of Sir Robert Nickle and the troops under his command in a few days was remitted, and the diggers returned quietly to their original occupation; and the seeds of rebellion, so fearful and dangerous to the public welfare, were thus, by the prompt measures of Captain Thomas, checked in the bud, and the peace of the community fully established.

For some time after the arrival of the military, considerable caution was taken to prevent any recurrence of any enrolment or combining of forces amongst the disaffected, and high rewards were offered for the apprehension of the leaders and instigators of the rebellion, more especially for their generalissimo. Colonel Berne, a German refugee, who, it was said, organized their forces,—a man of considerable talent, daring and impetuous. He was not taken, however, though £300 were offered for him, dead or alive; it is said that he escaped to Melbourne, where, disguised as a woman, he remained for some days, till a sum of money was collected for