H. C. Bailey

“ Master Wat Tyler, a robber of Kent, became master, and guided the mob to havoc. Prelate and lawyer, friar and publican were not enough to still their lust of blood. They fell upon the weakest quarter of the city, where the Flemings dwelt, and made a ghastly butchery. Night and day they thronged the streets with foul wet trophies of death. Master Wat Tyler and his friends fed fat of luxury and pride, and boasted themselves the rulers of the land. Father John and Gamelyn, who had called up a devil they could in no wise lay, preached and intrigued in passionate impotence. ”

“ Let John Ball or Gamelyn Gaveston do the like, and I will say thou hast not blasphemed.”
She flushed. “Art thou judge of God and man?”
“I will be judge of mine own wife,” said Captain Craddock. “And when she gives herself to the knaves of the Great Society, I will tell her she is a fool.”
She bit her lip, and was busy awhile about the table with nervous hands, Then she started back, her eyes aflame. “We are free, so no folk are slaves; we feed fat, so none go hungry; we keep our own, so none are despoiled. ”

“ The words came again with unction.
“What foulness is this?” cried Dame Alison, flushing.
The old woman went on polishing her pewter. “Foulness, quotha? Well, and if it be foulness, foul it is to meddle withal.”
“Thou hast an old foul heart, Martha.” Her mistress turned away in disdain.
“Ay, ay,” the harsh old voice rose; “foul am I, and too fair is my dainty doctor for any foulness. Marry, then, so be it. Give me the foul man who covets the body, not the devil who bids for the soul. A fair devil, a devil of maiden speech—Lord Christ deliver us!”
Captain Craddock came home before dusk. ”

“ Why, what weak soul spake that, Alison? It is but begun. We will have more and more and more till no lordling is left to vaunt himself Jack Trueman's better. All must come down. We will have them low upon their knees. I have mastered a king to-day. I will be King's counsellor yet and rule him to a new governance, wherein all shall enjoy the earth. I——”
“Thou? Why art thou idle here?”
Gamelyn turned on the grim brow of Captain Craddock. “I have earned my leisure, sweet sir: hast thou?”
“Go to thy friends, and dabble in the Archbishop's blood.” ”

“ The rebels speedily sent a message to the alderman saying that if they were not given entry to London, they would burn down all Southwark. He had no mind to give them so much trouble. He bade a man go and tell the mayor that there was nothing for it but to down drawbridge; and before any answer could come, down the drawbridge went and the wild army of peasants surged over and into the town. Gamelyn Gaveston changed a knowing look and a handshake with some of them, and plunged into the throng, seeking Father John Ball and Wat Tyler. ”

“ Nervous merchants and nervous nobles thronged about Walter Sybyle, the alderman of Bridge, and proffered him abundant aid. “Corpus Domini,” quoth he, “I will have none of any man but mine own men. The drawbridge is purely of my ward, and I will ward it as meseemeth good.” The men of substance looked at him askance, but there was a throng of the city rioters about him and no hope in force.
“God give you wits,” Captain Craddock grumbled. ”

“ William Walworth, the mayor, had been called to the Tower to advise with the boy King Richard and his council. Now portcullis was down and guards doubled at the gate. Captain Craddock saw the sleek alderman of Bridge, Walter Sybyle, setting a watch over the drawbridge that linked the arches with Southwark. One of the gapers told him that the men of Kent had sworn to burn London black as sea-coal, and draw and quarter the King. Captain Craddock had known a man swear to swallow the moon. In the hall he found the old woman still polishing pewter, and her little eyes twinkled at him. ”

“ There be perils closing upon me, and soon all that is mortal of me may be loosed again into the four elements. Care not thou for that! What is the life of man but a gift to spend that others may live? ”

“ They were not working for peace. Wild messengers ran from house to house crying that if Jack Trueman would be free, he must strike. They must gather on Tower Hill under the eyes of the King and teach him fear.
Towards the evening of the next day Gamelyn Gaveston came along the bridge with triumphal escort of a little company of sunburnt, white-polled Kentish peasants who cheered him steadily. Substantial citizens shrank away to give him the wall, and he was all complacent dignity. At Captain Craddock's door he halted and turned: “Good fellows,” quoth he, “I thank you. ”

“ The lads do it for sport.”
Gamelyn looked down at the swirling tide and shrank again. “I cannot. I have not strength. I dare not,” and he drew himself together and looked all about him.
Captain Craddock laughed. “Art proud of thy man, wench?”
Alison stood aloof, erect and pale.
All this while the hammering on the barred door had grown louder and louder, and now servants started into the hall. Captain Craddock stamped his foot. “Who bade you come? I did not bid you come. Away!” When they were gone he caught Gamelyn roughly and drove the man before him up the stair in the wall. ”

“ Who preaches madness to a mob earns converts easily. The saner minds, the honester hearts, heard the King's promise of freedom, were content and went their way. Every road out of the city was thronged with good fellows off homeward. ”

“ Merchants used to traffic all over Christendom, to dealing with the brigand baron of the Empire and the keen Lombard banker, the Venetian with his luxurious guile, the arrogant prelate of the Rhine and the savage flock-masters of their own western shires, were not likely to be dazed by a crowd of peasantry. ”

“ I am just come out of Kent, and”—he looked cunning—“and I think we may hear something of Kent anon. I have rung the bell, and there will be a goodly company at mass. Ay, the commons know they are men at last. They are coming to ask my lord why he wears his ermine while the wind whistles through their rags; why he hath his hall of wainscot and tapestry while in their hovels the beasts breed with them ”