Long Will Part 10

"No doubt but she deserved all she got."

"My father doth never beat thee," Calote averred.

"Thy father is no common man," said Kitte, "but a poet,--and a priest."

"I 'll not marry a common man," cried Calote, tossing the ribbon on the floor.

"Thou wilt not find another like to thy father," quoth Kitte. She laid her hand upon her daughter's shoulder and looked down for a moment on the yellow hair; then, as she had taken resolve, she said, "Natheless, an' 't were to live again, I 'd take t' other man."

Calote looked up, white; there was a question in her eyes.

"Ah, no!" said Kitte, answering, "'t was thy father I loved, fast eno'. The other man was a lord's son; he did not woo me in way of marriage. But I was desperate for love of thy father. I said, 'What matter? I will give myself to this lord, and forget.' Then my mother watched; and she betrayed me to Will; for that all our women were honest and she feared for my soul. And Will came to me and said, 'Choose! shall it be marriage with a clerk in orders,--a poor sort of marriage and hopeless,--but yet a marriage? Or shall it be the other, with this lording?' And his humilite and sweet pleasure that I had sighed for him so played upon me that I mistook; I thought he loved me. But a priest with a wife is a maimed creature. To marry the man we love is not alway the best we may do for him. Were thy father free, he might be well on to a bishopric by now."

"Bishops be not so enviable," answered Calote. "Here 's Wykeham thrust forth by John of Gaunt, all his estates confiscate, and he hunted hither and yon by the king's men. My father envieth not such."

"Thou art wilful," said Kitte sternly. "Kneel down and pray that thou mayst never know the bitterness it is to drag down thy best beloved, that was born to mount higher than thou,--be he priest or knight."

"My father would not be but a poor man, ever," cried Calote. "Bishops and great abbots they oppress the people and acquire lands"--

"Hold thy tongue and say thy prayers!" said Kitte, and shook her.

"How may I do both?" answered Calote.

"One learns," Kitte made reply coldly. And Calote, her prayers said, went to her mother's bed and kissed her.

"Thou shouldst marry a prince the morrow morn, had I my way," Kitte did murmur wistfully.

Nevertheless, on a day in late January, when Jack Straw said he would take Calote to see the Prince Richard and his train ride forth to Westminster, for Parliament was to be opened that day, Calote went with him gladly.

The old King was very sick in Kent; and John of Gaunt, to pleasure the people and so further his cause with them, had obtained that the Parliament be opened by the Prince. This was John of Gaunt's Parliament,--he had it packed; there was scarce a knight of any shire but was his creature. The town was full of lords and their retainers, of knights and burgesses.

'T was in a jostling crowd, and none too good-natured, that Calote and Jack Straw, Hobbe the smith, Peter from Devon, and Wat Tyler stood to see the heir pa.s.s. They were by Charing Cross, meaning to follow on to Westminster with the train when it came from the city. All about the people grumbled, and trod upon one another's toes. Prentices sang lewd songs and played vile pranks; anon the babel rose into a guffaw or lapsed to a snarl. Ploughman Peter squatted on the top step of the Cross, within a forest of legs, and slept. Hobbe gave entertainment to himself, and many beside, with mows and grins and gibberings out of the devil's part in the Miracle; yet he was mindful of Calote, and turned him to her now and again with:--

"Yon fellow 's of the household of Northumberland; dost mark his badge?"--or, "See, mistress! the black horse is one I shod yesterday; an ill-conditioned beast as ever champed bit;" and such-like information.

Wat Tyler and Jack Straw whispered together of certain oppression committed of late by Earl Percy and his retainers, and hinted at what should hap when the people claimed freedom for itself, and put down all such packed Parliaments as this was like to be.

"But, Wat," said Calote, who paid more heed to these two than to Hobbe and his pranks; "in my father's Vision n.o.bles and common folk laboured side by side in amity. Dost not mind the fine lady with the veil, how she sewed sacking and garments, and broidered altar-cloths? And the knight came to Piers in friendly wise to know what he might do. Yet thou wilt have it that the people is to do all, and moreover they will cast down the n.o.bles from their place, with hatred. How can this be when Christ the Lord is Leech of Love? Why wilt thou not have the n.o.bles into thy counsel; speak to them as they were thy brothers, and gain their love?"

Wat Tyler laughed aloud, and Jack Straw set his finger beneath Calote's chin and smiled upon her.

"Sweet preaching lips," quoth he, and would have kissed her; but she struck him, and Wat said:--

"Let be! Why tease the maid?"

But they ceased their whispering, for the crowd was making a great roar, and some said they could see the Prince. So many rude folk clambered up the steps of the Cross that Calote was pressed upon and well-nigh breathless, and she could see naught but the broad backs of men and the wide caps of women; so Jack Straw made as to lift her in his arms; but she, in haste, cried:--

"Wat shall hold me; he 's taller."

And Wat, laughing, swung her to his shoulder, for she was but a slip of a child.

"I 've a maid of mine own in Kent rides often thus," said tall Wat.

And Jack Straw smiled; yet, though he smiled, he cursed.

Now there came by trumpeters, and gentlemen in arms, a-many; and this and that and the other great lord. And then there came a little lad on a great horse.

He was all bejewelled, this little lad; he had a great ruby in his bonnet, and three gold chains about his neck, and a broad ribbon across his breast. His little legs stood out upon the back of the great horse, and his long mantle of velvet spread as far as the horse's tail. He had a fair and childlike countenance and a proud chin. His mien was serious, and he bore himself with a pretty stateliness, yet was nowise haughty. And the people cheered, and cheered, and cheered again; men laughed with love in their eyes, and women blessed him and sobbed. On his right hand rode the great Duke, smiling and affable; on his left, but sourly, the Earl of March. Close after came young Thomas of Woodstock. At Richard's bridle-rein there walked a young squire very gaily clad, and when the great horse came opposite Charing Cross and the place where Calote was lifted above the heads of the people, this squire said somewhat to the little Prince; whereupon Richard, forgetful, for the nonce, of Parliament and kingdom, stretched upward, turned his head like any eager child, with "Where?" upon his lips, and looked until he found--Calote.

He looked on her with a solemn curiosity, as a child will, and she from her high seat looked on him. Wat Tyler was moving on with the crowd, so the two kept pace, holding each other's glance. Once, Calote's eyes fell to the squire, whereupon he lifted his cap. All about her was shouting, but she heard only her own thoughts, which were, of a sudden, very loud and clear.--If this little child could learn to love and trust the poor, might not the Vision indeed be fulfilled? Might not the king and the ploughman indeed toil together, side by side, for the good of the people? Oh, if there were some one to teach this child! If she, Calote, might speak to him and tell him how far poverty differed from riches! The squire must have spoken concerning her, else why should the boy keep his eyes so fixed on her face? If she could but speak to him and tell him of the Vision, and what a king might do! He was so little, so n.o.ble,--he would a.s.suredly learn.

But now Wat, jostled amid the throng, was not able to keep pace with the Prince, and fell behind. And they were before Westminster, where the Duke lifted his nephew off the horse and led him within the Abbey; and other lords dismounted to follow, and there was confusion and shouting of pages. All this while, the ploughman, being waked when the Prince came past the Cross, had followed on behind Wat, agape on the splendour and forgetful of his own safety. But when the Earl of Devon and his retainers made a stand to dismount, on a sudden a stocky, red-faced knight sware a great oath and, leaping off his horse, came and took Peter by the ear:--

"A villein! A 'scaped villein!" he cried. "'T is mine! Bind him!"

And all the crowd was echoing, "A villein 'scaped!" when Hobbe, thrusting men and women to right and left, laid his hand upon Peter's shoulder and bawled:--

"A lie! A very villainous lie! 'T is my prentice that 's served me faithful this year and more."

"Hobbe's prentice!" cried the mob. "Good fellows, stand by the smith!"

And they closed about the knight, so that he had no room to draw his sword.

But one came riding from the old Earl of Devon to question concerning the affray, and the knight cried: "Justice! Justice, my lord! Here 's mine own villein kept from me by a rabble!"

"Justice!" bellowed the smith. "Oh, good citizens of London, do ye stand idly by and see the rights of prentices and masters so trampled?"

"Nay!--Nay!--Nay!--Nay!" said many voices; and the people surged this way and that.

"Rescue! Rescue!"

"Stand on your rights!"

"Does Devon rule because a Courtney 's Bishop o' London?"

The burly smith and the no less redoubtable knight stood a-glaring, each with his hand upon his claimed property.

"'T is mine!" cried the knight. "He ran not six months agone."

"'T is mine!" roared the smith. "Hath blowed my bellus this year and six."

One said the Bishop of London was sent for to quell the mob. A clot of mud caught the knight on the side of his bullet head. It could be seen where Devon consulted with his sons and retainers, for 't was no light matter to wrest away a London prentice, on whichsoever side lay the right.

"The smith speaks truth!" said Jack Straw, lifting up his voice. "When do the lords aught but lie to the people?"

Some one threw a stone.

Then Calote leaned down and laid her hand on Peter's head. "O sir!"

she said to the knight, "this is a man. Christ came in his likeness.

He is thy b.l.o.o.d.y brother. Will ye not love one another?"