Long Will
Page 31
CHAPTER III
In the City
On the Thursday the peasants came into London. Mayor Walworth mightnot choose but yield when he saw how many were against him: aldermen,citizens, and prentices. Wherefore he sent word to Wat Tyler to comein with his men, if so be they would pay for bed and board, and donone harm to that great city of London which was pride and glory ofall the English. And they came in by the Bridge and by Aldgate, agaping rabble,--for the most of them knew not London nor any city, andthese houses in rows, and Paul's Church, set them to stare. To thesethe prentices were joined, and every street and every lane in Londonran a river of men. They filled the taverns. Dame Emma had no need tocry "Good wine!--Come dine!"--and she did not take keep if they paidor no. She clapped each on back, with "Welcome, brother!" And to themthat were young she gave her lips with a smack.
There was set up in Cheapside a block to behead lawyers and all suchas were enemy to the people, and there were a-many slain in thisfashion, hastily, without shrift. Calote saw this block, and thebodies of men lying on heap; and the prentices played at foot-ballwith the bloody heads. And Calote ran down Cornhill as she were mad,and burst into the cot to her father, where he sat a-copying PiersPloughman. To him she told these horrors, and when she had made anend, he said:--
"Nay,--these be not brute beasts, but men, our brothers. This is themeaning of battle. Haply angels wage war and is no letting of blood;but not so men. Not yet."
"'T is Hobbe is headsman," sobbed Calote. "Oh, father,--Hobbe! Andshouting a jest with every blow."
"And thou and I, we know what a kindly man is this Hobbe; and if weknow, doth not Christ Jesus know, who shall absolve him? Be sure, ifthe King's Son of Heaven hath given His work in hands of sinful men,He knoweth to make excuse."
She lifted her head, bewildered:--
"Methought,--methought thou wert against wars, and this Rising?"
He smiled, amused, wistful, patient.
"I am one of the peacemakers," he said. "Natheless, in this battle,the word of my Vision is on the lips of them that slay. I am not forbattle, 't is true; but these fight on God's side. If He give leave,who am I to say nay?"
"And thou believest we shall win?" she cried. "Thou believest we shallwin?"
"What is 't--to win?" he asked. "Christ Jesus died on cross atwixt twothieves; but He is victor."
This was the day the Savoy was burned, John of Gaunt's palace withoutthe gates twixt Temple Bar and Charing Cross, and all the furnitureand rich stuffs therein that were not burned were hewed and allto-tore and cast in the river. Howsoever, John of Gaunt was in thenorth at that time, and well for him. In the garden, Stephen, who wasin the forefront of the mob all that day, came upon a lad hid behind abush and busied in rending the badge of Lancaster from his sleeve.
"Dieu merci!--then thou art not slain, my lord!" cried Stephen.
But the boy, drawing a sword, ran upon him with, "Oh, thou falsetraitor!"
"No traitor, my Lord Henry," Stephen answered, his hand twisting thechild's wrist that the sword dropped harmless. "No traitor, butbrother to the people and loyal true subject of King Richard. Have Inot sought thee this hour and more throughout the palace? Come, thouart not safe till the Tower hold thee."
"If I were King," said the lad fiercely, "I 'd burn them all in hotfire, as they have burned my father's house."
"Come," said Stephen, and led him hastily by the hand. But to departfrom the gardens they must needs pass nigh the blazing palace, andpresently they came upon rioters breaking up chairs and tables andcarved beds, and among these Jack Straw.
"What boy is this?" Jack cried, barring the way.
"A friend of mine," said Stephen.
"Then art thou traitor. The people has no silken friends."
"How often have I heard thee say," retorted Stephen, "that one daythou and all men shall be clad in silk?"
There was a crowd gathering, men stood about with broken legs ofchairs, good bludgeons, in their hands.
"Natheless, to-day our friends go in russet and rags," said JackStraw.
"So be it," Stephen assented, and stripped the child of his silk coatso that he stood in his shirt. "Art a-cold, friend?--Wilt have mycourtepy?"
"Nay," the boy answered, looking about on all those rough faces ofmen, but with a strange gleam in his eye,--"nay,--the fire warms me."
They all laughed loud, except Jack Straw, that stooped and set hisface close to the boy's face, but the boy did not blink. "Here 's noplace for children," Jack cried, drawing back baffled.
"For that reason do I take him hence," Stephen explained.
Jack narrowed his eyes: "The boy hath a tongue in 's head, and stoutlegs; is 't for this cause that thou art received into the Fellowship,to play the nursemaid to lost brats? Thou bawdy waster, false faitour!What knowest thou of brotherhood, that hast not soiled thy fingersthis day to serve thy fellows?"
"Nor I will not neither," cried Stephen. And at this word the men drewyet more close and their faces were awry twixt anger and amaze.
"I say I will not," he repeated, "if to serve my fellows is to burnand pillage other men's goods."
"Pillage!" roared all they as with one throat. "We be not thieves!"
"Ye say so," he answered, and then: "This cause is a righteous cause,and I will not hinder; but 't is not I have suffered at the hands ofthe noblesse; wherefore I will not wantonly overturn and lay waste. 'Tis my part to play messenger."
"'T is thy part to do whatsoever we bid thee," snarled Jack Straw.
"I am not of thy menye, Jack," said Stephen.
"Nay, for only honest fellows are of my menye,--thou art a traitor, aliar, a spy"--
"After a little while I w-will kill thee, Jack Straw,--I wills-sl-slit thy throat and c-cut out thy lying tongue,--but not to-day."
Jack wetted his lips and looked around upon his men; they were drawnclose, their faces were full of bewilderment, they watched theirleader and waited for a sign.
"And is this treason, brothers?" said Jack.--"He will slay me, in alittle while?--Will ye wait,--till he slay me?"--
There was a rustle,--a growl,--every moment the mob grew,--
"Will ye wait?" said Jack Straw again.
Some fellow in the crowd threw a carved bit of a bed cornice atStephen, but it fell short of him,--a chair leg struck his shoulder.He unbuckled his sword and laid it on the ground at his feet; heunbuckled the boy's sword also. A man with a table-top heaved up onhigh set it down.
"Brothers," said Stephen, "kill me an you will; but I am no traitor.Jack Straw and I have a quarrel concerneth us two and no other man.One day we 'll settle it in fair fight,--one day when all men arefree. I am loyal true to the Fellowship,--and to the King. Are ye allloyal to the King?"
"Yea,--God bless the King!" they cried.
"Ye come at the King by me, no man else may go in at the Tower. Andwill ye kill me and leave the King prisoned with the noblesse?"
"Fitzwarine!--Fitzwarine!" cried a voice at the far edge of thethrong. "Is 't Stephen Fitzwarine yonder? Wat Tyler hath need of himfor a message. Fitzwarine!"
And the mob parted to right and left to let Stephen pass through. Ashe went, one ran after and gave him his sword.
"And my sword?" said the boy, who clung to Stephen's hand and followedclose behind.
"Nay, let it lie," Stephen answered him.
By Charing Cross they found Wat Tyler, and, by good hap, Calote.
"Thou must seek out John Ball and bid him make a camp to-night onSaint Catherine's Hill, where I will meet him," said Wat. "When thouhast so said, come to me at the Fleet Prison, where we go to setprisoners free," and he strode off in a great haste.
"Sweetheart," said Stephen then, and kissed his love; "here 's work todo, and none may do it so safe and sure as thou. Take this lording bythe hand and lead him through the city to the Tower;--do not leave himtill he is entered there. Art afeared?"
"Afeared!" she cried, "and all the Fellowship my
brothers?--Who isthis young lord?"
And Stephen made answer, "'T is John of Gaunt's son, Henry, shall beLancaster."