A KING'S LESSON
It is told of Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary--the Alfred the Greatof his time and people--that he once heard (once ONLY?) that some (onlySOME, my lad?) of his peasants were over-worked and under-fed. So hesent for his Council, and bade come thereto also some of the mayors ofthe good towns, and some of the lords of land and their bailiffs, andasked them of the truth thereof; and in diverse ways they all told oneand the same tale, how the peasant carles were stout and well able towork and had enough and to spare of meat and drink, seeing that theywere but churls; and how if they worked not at the least as hard asthey did, it would be ill for them and ill for their lords; for thatthe more the churl hath the more he asketh; and that when he knowethwealth, he knoweth the lack of it also, as it fared with our firstparents in the Garden of God. The King sat and said but little whilethey spake, but he misdoubted them that they were liars. So theCouncil brake up with nothing done; but the King took the matter toheart, being, as kings go, a just man, besides being more valiant thanthey mostly were, even in the old feudal time. So within two or threedays, says the tale, he called together such lords and councillors ashe deemed fittest, and bade busk them for a ride; and when they wereready he and they set out, over rough and smooth, decked out in all theglory of attire which was the wont of those days. Thus they rode tillthey came to some village or thorpe of the peasant folk, and through itto the vineyards where men were working on the sunny southern slopesthat went up from the river: my tale does not say whether that wereTheiss, or Donau, or what river. Well, I judge it was late spring orearly summer, and the vines but just beginning to show their grapes;for the vintage is late in those lands, and some of the grapes are notgathered till the first frosts have touched them, whereby the wine madefrom them is the stronger and sweeter. Anyhow there were the peasants,men and women, boys and young maidens, toiling and swinking; somehoeing between the vine-rows, some bearing baskets of dung up the steepslopes, some in one way, some in another, labouring for the fruit theyshould never eat, and the wine they should never drink. Thereto turnedthe King and got off his horse and began to climb up the stony ridgesof the vineyard, and his lords in like manner followed him, wonderingin their hearts what was toward; but to the one who was following nextafter him he turned about and said with a smile, "Yea, lords, this is anew game we are playing to-day, and a new knowledge will come from it."And the lord smiled, but somewhat sourly.
As for the peasants, great was their fear of those gay and goldenlords. I judge that they did not know the King, since it was littlelikely that any one of them had seen his face; and they knew of him butas the Great Father, the mighty warrior who kept the Turk from harryingtheir thorpe. Though, forsooth, little matter was it to any man therewhether Turk or Magyar was their over-lord, since to one master oranother they had to pay the due tale of labouring days in the year, andhard was the livelihood that they earned for themselves on the dayswhen they worked for themselves and their wives and children.
Well, belike they knew not the King; but amidst those rich lords theysaw and knew their own lord, and of him they were sore afraid. Butnought it availed them to flee away from those strong men and stronghorses--they who had been toiling from before the rising of the sun,and now it wanted little more than an hour of noon: besides, with theKing and lords was a guard of crossbowmen, who were left the other sideof the vineyard wall,--keen-eyed Italians of the mountains, straightshooters of the bolt. So the poor folk fled not; nay they made as ifall this were none of their business, and went on with their work. Forindeed each man said to himself, "If I be the one that is not slain,to-morrow I shall lack bread if I do not work my hardest to-day; andmaybe I shall be headman if some of these be slain and I live."
Now comes the King amongst them and says: "Good fellows, which of youis the headman?"
Spake a man, sturdy and sunburnt, well on in years and grizzled: "I amthe headman, lord."
"Give me thy hoe, then," says the King; "for now shall I order thismatter myself, since these lords desire a new game, and are fain towork under me at vine-dressing. But do thou stand by me and set meright if I order them wrong: but the rest of you go play!"
The carle knew not what to think, and let the King stand with his handstretched out, while he looked askance at his own lord and baron, whowagged his head at him grimly as one who says, "Do it, dog!"
Then the carle lets the hoe come into the King's hand; and the Kingfalls to, and orders his lords for vine-dressing, to each his due shareof the work: and whiles the carle said yea and whiles nay to hisordering. And then ye should have seen velvet cloaks cast off, andmantles of fine Flemish scarlet go to the dusty earth; as the lords andknights busked them to the work.
So they buckled to; and to most of them it seemed good game to play atvine-dressing. But one there was who, when his scarlet cloak was off,stood up in a doublet of glorious Persian web of gold and silk, such asmen make not now, worth a hundred florins the Bremen ell. Unto him theKing with no smile on his face gave the job of toing and froing up anddown the hill with the biggest and the frailest dung-basket that therewas; and thereat the silken lord screwed up a grin, that was sport tosee, and all the lords laughed; and as he turned away he said, yet sothat none heard him, "Do I serve this son's son of a whore that heshould bid me carry dung?" For you must know that the King's father,John Hunyad, one of the great warriors of the world, the Hammer of theTurks, was not gotten in wedlock, though he were a king's son.
Well, they sped the work bravely for a while, and loud was the laughteras the hoes smote the earth and the flint stones tinkled and the cloudof dust rose up; the brocaded dung-bearer went up and down, cursing andswearing by the White God and the Black; and one would say to another,"See ye how gentle blood outgoes churls' blood, even when the gentledoes the churl's work: these lazy loons smote but one stroke to ourthree." But the King, who worked no worse than any, laughed not atall; and meanwhile the poor folk stood by, not daring to speak a wordone to the other; for they were still sore afraid, not now of beingslain on the spot, but this rather was in their hearts: "These greatand strong lords and knights have come to see what work a man may dowithout dying: if we are to have yet more days added to our year's taleof lords' labour, then are we lost without remedy." And their heartssank within them.
So sped the work; and the sun rose yet higher in the heavens, and itwas noon and more. And now there was no more laughter among thosetoiling lords, and the strokes of the hoe and mattock came far slower,while the dung-bearer sat down at the bottom of the hill and looked outon the river; but the King yet worked on doggedly, so for shame theother lords yet kept at it. Till at last the next man to the King lethis hoe drop with a clatter, and swore a great oath. Now he was astrong black-bearded man in the prime of life, a valiant captain ofthat famous Black Band that had so often rent the Turkish array; andthe King loved him for his sturdy valour; so he says to him, "Is aughtwrong, Captain?"
"Nay, lord," says he, "ask the headman carle yonder what ails us."
"Headman," says the King, "what ails these strong knights? Have Iordered them wrongly?"
"Nay, but shirking ails them, lord," says he, "for they are weary; andno wonder, for they have been playing hard, and are of gentle blood."
"Is that so, lord," says the King, "that ye are weary already?"
Then the rest hung their heads and said nought, all save that captainof war; and he said, being a bold man and no liar: "King, I see whatthou wouldst be at; thou hast brought us here to preach us a sermonfrom that Plato of thine; and to say sooth, so that I may swink nomore, and go eat my dinner, now preach thy worst! Nay, if thou wilt bepriest I will be thy deacon. Wilt thou that I ask this labouring carlea thing or two?"
"Yea," said the King. And there came, as it were, a cloud of thoughtover his face.
Then the captain straddled his legs and looked big, and said to thecarle: "Good fellow, how long have we been working here?"
"Two hours or thereabout, judging by the sun above us,"
says he.
"And how much of thy work have we done in that while?" says thecaptain, and winks his eye at him withal.
"Lord," says the carle, grinning a little despite himself, "be notwroth with my word. In the first half-hour ye did five-and-fortyminutes' work of ours, and in the next half-hour scant a thirtyminutes' work, and the third half-hour a fifteen minutes' work, and inthe fourth half-hour two minutes' work." The grin now had faded fromhis face, but a gleam came into his eyes as he said: "And now, as Isuppose, your day's work is done, and ye will go to your dinner, andeat the sweet and drink the strong; and we shall eat a littlerye-bread, and then be working here till after the sun has set and themoon has begun to cast shadows. Now for you, I wot not how ye shallsleep nor where, nor what white body ye shall hold in your arms whilethe night flits and the stars shine; but for us, while the stars yetshine, shall we be at it again, and bethink ye for what! I know notwhat game and play ye shall be devising for to-morrow as ye ride backhome; but for us when we come back here to-morrow, it shall be as ifthere had been no yesterday and nothing done therein, and that work ofthat to-day shall be nought to us also, for we shall win no respitefrom our toil thereby, and the morrow of to-morrow will all be to beginagain once more, and so on and on till no to-morrow abideth us.Therefore, if ye are thinking to lay some new tax or tale upon us,think twice of it, for we may not bear it. And all this I say with theless fear, because I perceive this man here beside me, in the blackvelvet jerkin and the gold chain on his neck, is the King; nor do Ithink he will slay me for my word since he hath so many a Turk beforehim and his mighty sword!"
Then said the captain: "Shall I smite the man, O King? or hath hepreached thy sermon for thee?"
"Smite not, for he hath preached it," said the King. "Hearken to thecarle's sermon, lords and councillors of mine! Yet when another hathspoken our thought, other thoughts are born therefrom, and now have Ianother sermon to preach; but I will refrain me as now. Let us downand to our dinner."
So they went, the King and his gentles, and sat down by the river underthe rustle of the poplars, and they ate and drank and were merry. Andthe King bade bear up the broken meats to the vine-dressers, and a gooddraught of the archer's wine, and to the headman he gave a broad goldpiece, and to each man three silver pennies. But when the poor folkhad all that under their hands, it was to them as though the kingdom ofheaven had come down to earth.
In the cool of the evening home rode the King and his lords. The Kingwas distraught and silent; but at last the captain, who rode besidehim, said to him: "Preach me now thine after-sermon, O King!"
"I think thou knowest it already," said the King, "else hadst thou notspoken in such wise to the carle; but tell me what is thy craft and thecraft of all these, whereby ye live, as the potter by making pots, andso forth?"
Said the captain: "As the potter lives by making pots, so we live byrobbing the poor."
Again said the King: "And my trade?"
Said he, "Thy trade is to be a king of such thieves, yet no worser thanthe rest."
The King laughed.
"Bear that in mind," said he, "and then shall I tell thee my thoughtwhile yonder carle spake. 'Carle,' I thought, 'were I thou or such asthou, then would I take in my hand a sword or a spear, or were it onlya hedge-stake, and bid others do the like, and forth would we go; andsince we would be so many, and with nought to lose save a miserablelife, we would do battle and prevail, and make an end of the craft ofkings and of lords and of usurers, and there should be but one craft inthe world, to wit, to work merrily for ourselves and to live merrilythereby.'"
Said the captain: "This then is thy sermon. Who will heed it if thoupreach it?"
Said the King: "They who will take the mad king and put him in aking's madhouse, therefore do I forbear to preach it. Yet it SHALL bepreached."
"And not heeded," said the captain, "save by those who head and hangthe setters forth of new things that are good for the world. Our tradeis safe for many an many a generation."
And therewith they came to the King's palace, and they ate and drankand slept and the world went on its ways.
A Dream of John Ball; and, A King's Lesson Page 13