The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-05-29


ef,,dp,, the rich their comforts If only
they would spend less on their own
sensual enjoyment and perform the
appointed duties. 1t was Gods will
that every man should work, and the
knight had his appointed work as well
as the peasant. His work it was to
protect the industrious husbandman
against the wild beasts that broke
down his hedges and ravaged his fields,
against the wild fowls that ate his corn,
against the robbers who would seize
upon the fruits of his toll, against the
idle MASTERS who neither work nor
want. Let the knight do this, and the
husbandman would cheerfully labor for
him with his hands and strive to keep
him in comfort.
But if the knight neglected this duty
what were the poor commons to do?
They were to refuse to work for him !;
they were to treat him as he really was
himself robber and waster. And
if he sought to compel them, they were
to band together and resist him.
Such was Balls simple scheme of
social reform. He aimed at the puri-
fication, not the destruction, of the
feudal system; at the practical reallza-
ton of it as community in which
there were fixed ranks, each with its
appointed duties, all vital, all opera
tive.
The time had come for resistance, he
cried. His audience cheered loudly,
and Ralph Hardelot, seeing the ferocity
and determination of the faces which
had lately looked so stolid, wondered
what his friend the merchant meant in
mailing the orator as a champion who
might be expected to discourage vio-
lence.
But the next turn in John Balls dis
course justified the confidence of Simon
d'Ypers, and proved the orators con-
summate art and his mastery of his
audience.
"The time has come for resistance,
he repeated, "but in this also beware
of going to excess Piers the Plowman
cannot exist without knighthOod to
protect him. They are but fools who
tell him to sweep knighthood away.
Only knighthood must be warned that
Piers will no longer toll for him if he
is sluggard and false to his trust.
They must work together as father and
SON."
OF this proposition the audience
seemed more doubtful, but after a
pause the authority of the speaker pre-
vailed, and there was an approving
murmur.
"Iou must gather together he con-
tinued, "and give the lords of the soil
to understand that you will no longer
serve them if they do not serve you.
Evil counsellors have misled them,
Pride and Vainglory, Gluttony and
Lust, Falsehood and Flattery. You
must stand together like men, and
speak to them plainly, face to face.
Above all, YOU must lay your grievances
before the king, the greatest lord of all,
and charge him to call wrongdoers to
account, to Danish Guile and Falsehood
from his court, and take Truth and
Justice and Conscience as his counsel
lors."
Then, much to Ralph's delight, he
proceeded to tell them that there was
good hope of the young king, that God
had touched his heart with pity for the
poor commons, and that he was minded
to inquire into their wrongs and chas-
tise and reform thier oppressors.
A voice exclaimed that this was but
a trick. Ball turned sternly towards
the interruption, and checked in an in
slant the jets of bitter laughter with
which this suspicion was echoed here
and there throughout the crowd.
"Friends," he said, "be not over
suspicious. False suspicion is an evil
guide, and will certainly lead astray
the man that trusts to it. Will you
copy the vice of the subtle steward who
is ever on the watch for fraud and de-
ceit and sly evasion, and often sug-
gests deceit to the honest tenant by the
cunning with which he seeks to pre-
vent it? Granted that there are many
about the kings person who would
gladly thwart his kindly intentions, be
not you so foolish as to fall into their
snares They will try to make you be-
lieve that the king is against you. If
you must be suspicious, suspect them,
but do not suspect the king till you
have spoken with him direct through
men whom you can trust"
At hearing this, Ralph burned to tell
the crowd that he had seen the king,
and could assure them that his willing
ness to help the poor commons was no
pretence. Hardly had the wish flashed
through his mind when he was startled
to hear the priest say, as if interpreting