Omaha daily bee., 1902-07-06
.YoUR MAJEsrY. R FORGET AZ ELSE. Lea ans NIGHT REMAIN UNFoReoTTEN

OF the women as were at the ~lattices looked
down into those crooked streets upon a
play the like to which they would never
see again while Mary reigned! No mer-
chant thought of his wares today, no APP
prentice cried a bargain. In the dim light
as of a morning Of tragedies, armed men
moved as specters from the shadows, faces
unified told the human story OF fear and
hope, OF doubt and desire. The shattered
windows, the barred doors, the play of
light upon cap and c~orslet, the whispered
menaces, the rolling thunder beyond the
river contributed, each on it's measure,
to the awe and wonder. What thing
then, was Detailing in that sleepy hamlet
Of Southwark? Who were these who had
come to dethrone the Spaniard, these who
would march into London presently? Would
they enter in as m~arauders for pillage and
rapine; would they come in as disciples
Of the old faith which lived unspoken in
the peoples hearts? Must blood be shed
today where yesterday men TESTED for very
Joy OF life? None could answer such a
question; none might prophesy. From
tim to time, in truth, a passing horseman
would draw rein to cry the bridge is
down; Wyatt is in" but ere his words
were twice repeated another would follow
him with reinsurance: The day is ours;
the bridge is held! God save Queen Mary
And in the gloom the pair would be en-
quilted, both he that told of defeat and he
that spoke Of victory.
London. then, knew little Of that which
befell; nor was the pleasant hamlet OF
Southwark much wiser. Out OF the night.
with scarce a cry of warning. this ragged
army had ridden. BY many lanes and
alleys, from the open fields, without order
or sure purpose, a motley company whose
corselets were Of mud, whose arm were
yesterday in byre and stable. 1t pressed on
at dawn in all the savage delight Of that
~uncontested pilgrimage. Dumb serfs but
a week ago. unclaimed prisoners OF the fall
low, the peasants marched as very valiants
of war. Never in all their lives. perhaps,
had the most part Of them set eyes on any
city or known other hamlet, but that in
which their poor fortunes lay. And now
at some call beyond their reason, but APP
pealing to a human necessity OF which they
were unconscious, they had cast the old
habit Of life behind them, and taken up
this parrot cry, "A Wyatt! A Wyatt!''
What food for philosophy. the scholars said
What a dirge Of death the prophets cried.
Yet each could welcome the dreary cavai-
oade with smiling face and ready tribute.
1t were dangerous for a man to declare
himself upon such a day.
Regard the faces closely and you shall
see many types there. You fellow, who
lifts a scythe so bravely, has he not since
childhood husbanded a desire Of the cities,
a dream Of war and ~pillage? Or this
dwarash minister Of the sonorous voice and
the nose chant, eloquent In psalms, was it
not Mary's bishop that turned him to the
fields that he might lack an altar and a
pulpit? Or look over the rabble again. and
pick out your giant Of the forge, whose
brawny arm and lusty step proclaim his
honest calling, and ask him why he
marches TO London town. Aye. you shall
hear a hundred stories do you but listen
to their eloquence. Now, It will be OF one
that has tasted no bread since Michael
mas; again Of a crazy fellow who has It in
his head that the spaniard will take his
farm and give II TO a stranger; by here
you shall meet the true fanatic exelaiming
upon the blssphemies Of mass and sacra-
meRt. by there you shall find another who
thinks a stan uplifted will save the queen
from a Spanish bed aye. for every one