The San Juan islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1898-1914, 1902-07-17

t1On TO SDlelQ MIN that the fUll ext ent
of his danger was only too manifest.
Escape was impossible If he had wished
it, and rejecting on his toilsome
climb out of obscurity, on the many
heavy burdens he had borne, and the
bitter ingratitude and calunlny that
were his reward, he had little desire to
live, and prepared to endure the worst
with dignity.
He had remained all night in the
Tower, and in the chapel there on
Thursday morning he celebrated early
mass before the king and his court,
and dismissed them with his blessing
to the interview with the insurgents at
Rotherhithe.
They rowed down from the Tower
about ten o'clock. Ralph Hardelot
had place in the barge near the king.
With characteristic impulsiveness Rich
ard had made prime favorite of the
young man, and feeling the need of
trusting some one in such crisis, and
regarding all the statesmen around him
with suspicion as being possibly secret
allies of his unlce Lancaster, he trusted
Ralph implicitly. His mobiles did not
like this childish partiality, and spoke
one to another about the intruder with
contemptuous anger; but it was not a
time to squabble with their royal
master about such an insignificant per-
son, and the princess seemed to approve
of her sons fancy to have the young
man near his person.
As they rowed down the river they
found the banks by Rotherhithe crowd
ed with rugged and ragged mob Of
peasants. They also had been prepared
by their chaplain for the work of the
day; but in place of the solemn mass
their morning service had been rous-
ing sermon from John Ball on the in
iquity OF bondage and the natural
equality of men. Balls famous text
on the OCCASION
"Whan Adam dali and Eve span
Wo was thanne the gentilman?'-
is sometimes referred to as if it had
been his own composition. 1t was
really familiar country proverb. The
equality CT man in the primitive state
was equally commonplace, to be
1t was in the practical application that
Ball differed from his contemporaries.
The attempt at conference failed,
as had been anticipated on both sides,
except by the unreasonably sanguine.
The mobiles would not comply with the
preliminary conditions of the insurg-
ents, and the insurgents would do moth
-, ua or aH
The young king, indeed, was eager TO
land. Ralph, seeing in this the only
chance of averting collision, had
warmly advised him to trust his preson
with the insurgents. The king had all
the fearlessness of his race, and the
boldness of the measure captivated his
chivalrous imagination. As the event
proved afterward, it might have been
done with safety. But the counssllors
who accompanied the king would not
hear of it.
The royal party was not long return
ed to the Tower when the insurgents
were battering at the gates of London
bridge on the south and Aldgate on the
east, and threatening to pillage and
burn the suburbs if they were not ad-
mitted.
The city gates we're opened after
brief parley. What happened then?
Indiscriminate pillage and massacre
No; the wealth of the capital and the
lives of the citizens were at the mercy
of these armies of shoe 'ess and ragged
churls--there was nothing but moral
authority to restrain them; but,
strange to say, they resisted the temp
tation. They marched through the
streets in order as peaceably as mod
ern demonstration through Pail
Mall and Picadilly to Hyde Park.
Their rising was in TACT demonstra-
ton, not a bloodthirsty rebellion.
Two great outrages on property were
perpetrated that afternoon, but both
were rough acts of exemplary punish
ment, both were probably deliberately
planned by the leaders as safety-valves
for the excitement of their followers.
Such miscellaneous mob. full of hi
larious energy, rejoicing in their UNI
wonted holiday from dull routine, piled
with food and drink by the sympa-
thetic and the sycophahtic, bubbling
over with the laughter OF a self-satisiac-
ton that a touch might kindle into de-
structive savagery, was dangerous If left
without definite occupation 1t was
we'll for the unprotected wealth OF Lon
don that their energies were concentrate
ed against the property OF two OF the
greatest and most hated personages in
the realm, John of Gaunt and Sir Rob-
ert Hales, the lord high treasurer. The
men of Kent, entering by London