Long Will Part 46

"Thou must seek out John Ball and bid him make a camp to-night on Saint Catherine's Hill, where I will meet him," said Wat. "When thou hast so said, come to me at the Fleet Prison, where we go to set prisoners free," and he strode off in a great haste.

"Sweetheart," said Stephen then, and kissed his love; "here 's work to do, and none may do it so safe and sure as thou. Take this lording by the hand and lead him through the city to the Tower;--do not leave him till he is entered there. Art afeared?"

"Afeared!" she cried, "and all the Fellowship my brothers?--Who is this young lord?"

And Stephen made answer, "'T is John of Gaunt's son, Henry, shall be Lancaster."

CHAPTER IV

In the Tower

Now all these things are writ in the Chronicles,--as how the Inns of Court of the Temple was destroyed and records burned, and the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem at Clerkenwell burned, and prisons opened; wherefore this book needs not to tell.

So, when night was come and the people a little wearied of their wild work, Wat Tyler sent the squire to Richard to know what the King would do. For this thing was plain, that the most part of the people was loyal to the King, and minded to follow him and obey Calote's hest.

And Wat Tyler, being wise, knew that if he would come at his goal, to rule England, he must stand for a little behind Richard's chair.

"Bid the King come to his own," said Wat. "Thou and I and John Ball, we be as honest men as Salisbury and John of Gaunt and Simon the Archbishop."

In the beginning the guard at the Tower gate was loth to hold speech with Stephen, but when he had given the word, and moreover thrown off his hood that his face was plain, he was let come in; howbeit there went a soldier at his side all the way.

When he came into the chapel, John Leg was there a-mumbling his prayers, and at sound of footsteps he screeched and ran up the altar-steps, For this John Leg was he that was leader of the poll-tax commission, and he dwelt hourly in great fear of his life.

Beyond, in a large chamber, were gathered together all those that had sought refuge in the Tower. The Queen was there, and her ladies, withdrawn to the dais and whispering. In the midst of the room, at a table, Salisbury sat, and Thomas of Woodstock, Earl of Buckingham, the King's uncle, and the Earls of Warwick and Suffolk, and Simon Sudbury the Archbishop; also Mayor Walworth was there, set twixt Salisbury and the Archbishop. Pages held torches nigh that they might the better mark one another's faces, for the chamber was of a great size and full of shadows. Within a window Robert Hales stood, looking out to north where was a red glare far off without the city; and he knew that this was his manor burning at Highbury. Sir John Holland and the Earl of Kent sat on the dais step with the ladies, but the King was not anywhere in the chamber. There was a young boy of haughty mien and frowning brow that paced to and fro, and anon he halted to listen by the table. This was Henry, John of Gaunt's son; and 't was he saw Stephen and cried out:--

"My lords, here 's Etienne Fitzwarine! Now shall we know somewhat."

All those about the table turned and looked at Stephen, and the pages held their torches higher.

"Art thou for us, Fitzwarine?" quoth Salisbury. "Art thou come as a friend?"

"I am for the people, my lord,--with the King."

"The people first!" sneered Thomas of Woodstock, the Earl of Buckingham. "A loyal servant, thou!"

"Doth not the King's self set the people first, afore the King?--May I do less, my Lord of Buckingham?"

"How are we tainted!" groaned Sudbury the Archbishop.

"Tainted, ay!" Stephen cried. "The laws are so rotten that they s-stink. The Statute of Labourers is a plague-spot, festering out of the Black Death. Oh, my lords, cut it out!"

"This is Wyclif! This is John Ball!" Sudbury mourned, his head in his hands.

"For the people?" questioned Salisbury anew; "that 's to mean the rebels,--and against n.o.bilite?"

"Hear the word, my lord," Stephen said, and never a stammer caught his tongue.

"'When Adam delved and Eve span, Who was then the gentleman?'

"Against all men am I, merchants, n.o.blesse, lords of manors, that do oppress their brothers, and hold to villeinage. This law of villeins is a dead law shall no longer be hanged about the necks of English peasants. We be free men. Lawbreakers, say ye?--Of a surete we 'll break that law of villeins, smash and stamp it under foot, till 't is past mending. I am for the villeins,--and the King. I am sent a message to the King from his loyal people."

"By the rood of Chester!" shouted Thomas of Woodstock, "and thou art come hither red-handed from slaughter and pillage of the n.o.blesse to cast insult in the teeth of the King?--A message from yonder rabble?--A plot, a murder, belike!"

"Dost thou think so?" quoth Stephen very quiet, and drew sword and dagger and laid them on the table.

"My Lord of Buckingham, we are sore tried," said Salisbury, "and 't would seem we had just cause for anger these three days; natheless, let peasants rage; 't behoves us keep our tongues and tempers. Prythee give again his sword and dagger to Etienne Fitzwarine."

"Nay, my lord," Stephen interposed; "'t was I was over-hasty to lay them down. I 'll take them up and bear no malice.--Beseech you, where is the King?"

"Gone above to look forth from a turret," Henry answered. "I would have borne him company, but he 's in the sulks."

"My lords, pray you, let me go bring hither the King," said Stephen, and he went into that corner of the room where a door opened upon the stair. Young Henry followed, plucking at his sleeve, with:--

"An thou canst, make my cousin to see here 's his time to play the man. But he 's a poor thing."

"My lord, 't is not so simple to be a king," Stephen answered coldly.

"To know what one will have, and to take it,--is not this enough?" the boy said with scorn. But Stephen left him and climbed the stair.

The dusk of summer came in at the windows of the dark turret, and in one of the windows Richard sat, hugging his knees.

"Go down, cousin!" he said sharply, without turning his head.

"'T is Etienne Fitzwarine, sire," Stephen ventured.

"Ah, thou!" exclaimed the boy. "Come hither, mignon!" and held out his arms.

"On every hand they thwart me," he complained. "Mine Uncle Buckingham counselleth one way and Salisbury another. If I speak, they do not listen; and if I rest silent, my cousin Henry hath fixed me with scornful eyes, as who should say, 'Were in thy shoes,'--Christ, but I do hate my cousin Henry!--Etienne, methinks my star hath slipped,--I was not meant to be a king. One day 't will be discovered; then they 'll cry out for Lancaster."

"My lord," Stephen soothed him, "hast thou heard how they have cried out all this day in London streets, and at the burning of the Savoy, 'We will have no King called John?'"

"His name is Henry," the boy answered, "'t is a froward child;" and then pa.s.sionately: "Natheless, tell me 't is not true! Tell me,--tell me!"

"Look out of window, sire, on Saint Catherine's Hill, where thy people wait thee! So shall these fears and follies be dispelled."

"Let us to the battlement to breathe," said Richard. "Is more to see; and I 'm smothered here, walled in with my cousin."

So they went up; and all around the sky was red, but not with the sun, for that was set three hours past. There was a smell of ashes on the air. Near by, to eastward, on Saint Catherine's Hill, the peasants were encamped. Which is to say, as many as were not lodged in the city; Will Langland had a score and six lying close in his cot, and Dame Emma harboured threescore and ten; there were some slept in Paul's Churchyard, and others in aldermen's soft beds,--that had never known but straw. Nevertheless, the most part of them was on the hill, and this was so close beneath the Tower that Richard, leaning on the battlement, might descry their faces very plain by the light of the camp-fires.

"And dost thou bid me look on these and so be a.s.sured I am a king?" he said, and laughed, the better to swallow a sob.

"My lord, these are the honesty of England," said Stephen. "Truest men on live. Trust them!"

"Yonder 's one with a brand on 's brow,--I see it, T!" cried the boy.

Then he covered his face and shuddered.