Long Will Part 56

Sir John went backward a pace, nevertheless he would not eat his words:--

"Wherefore should they not make merry, sire? They were fools an they wept. Nay, they have gone home to their wives to tell a marvellous tale. Here 's a king! do they cry. Let us but rise up and burn a manor-house or two, and take London Bridge,--and we may have what we will, even if 't be the King's crown."

"Who bade me grant all?" cried Richard. "Who fled a-horseback into the fields for fear of that rabble at Mile End? What I did, was 't not done to save your coward skins, as much as to pleasure peasants?"

"O my liege! Who may know this, if not thy loyal servants?" said Salisbury, and bent his old knees. Whereupon those others knelt likewise, and Salisbury continued:--

"Thou hast wrought with a king-craft beyond thy years, sire. Thou hast saved England. But now must stern measures be taken, else are we like to be in worse case. When the people discover that they are--that they--are"--

"Tricked!" shouted Buckingham, laughing loud. "Tricked, my wise nephew! 'T were well to crush them neath the iron hand of fear, ere they find out this. So, I say, fall to!--Beat them down! Let blood flow! 'T is the one way!"

"Tricked?" the King repeated, frowning. "But I was honest."

"Ay, my lord," a.s.sured him Salisbury. "And so wert thou honest if a madman came to thee and gripped thy throat and said, 'Give me thy kingdom, King Richard,' and thou didst answer, 'Yea, freely I give it thee.' Natheless, the madman might not rule England. Neither may King Richard keep faith with him, for that were grievous wrong to Englishmen."

The King laughed, as he were uncertain and ashamed; the colour came into his face. "'T is very raisonable," he said slowly,--"but--I did not give them the kingdom,--I gave them--liberty."

"My lord hath not forgot that concerning this matter Parliament hath a voice. It may well be Parliament shall give consent,--natheless"--Salisbury faltered, and Buckingham laughed very scornful.

"I am King!" cried Richard haughtily, but there was a question in his cry.

"My lord doth not forget," said Salisbury, "as how in England the King taketh counsel with his people as concerning the welfare of the kingdom. Since the day of the first Edward, grandfather to my lord's grandfather, this is more and more a custom in England. Through Parliament doth the King receive his grants, taxes, moneys for the King's expending. 'T were not well to make an enemy of Parliament. The court is straitened for moneys."

Richard bit his lip and paced up and down, clinching his hands.

"Who said the King was free?" he cried. And on a sudden, very fierce: "If I am cozened, 't is not the peasants have cozened me."

"O sire!" pleaded the old Earl, "think not of n.o.blesse, nor of peasants, nor yet of thine own self,--but of all England, that thy grandfather Edward made a great nation. Wilt have it go to wrack in the hands of crazed villeins? Put down the revolt with a strong hand; then will they wake from their madness."

"Cure them with blood, sire," said Buckingham. "'T is the one way.

Else were no man's head safe."

"Beau sire!" cried Robert de Vere, entering, "the Mayor is here with that rebel, Jack Straw, was so fierce against the Flemings on Friday."

Then came in Walworth, and Jack bound.

"What vermin is this?" asked Richard. "Have him forth,--displeaseth me. Faugh! How the fellow crawls!"

"Sire, I will confess," Jack whined. "I will reveal all. Let me go free, sire! I went astray. Do but let me go free, and I 'll confess.

'T was not I was leader, sire, but Wat Tyler--and Stephen Fitzwarine"--

The King had sat listless, paying no heed, but at the name of Fitzwarine he lifted his head:--

"Take this liar to the courtyard and beat out 's brains!" he said.

"Where is Etienne?"

"Sire, pardon!" now began Walworth, "but 't is very true I took Master Fitzwarine yester e'en by the side of the body of the traitor, Wat Tyler; and he made as to defend the body, and spake against certain great n.o.bles of the realm."

"Thou hast slain him?" screamed Richard,--"Etienne!--Etienne!"

"Nay, sire; for that I knew the King loved him. Natheless, for safety he is housed close. And here is his sword. With this same sword I strake off the head of Wat Tyler. My lord, I am thy faithful servant."

"Ay," Richard a.s.sented. "Prythee pardon, friend; I have not forgot that good turn thou did me and all England yesterday. But give me the sword. I will wear the sword that hewed off that traitor's head."

"Sweet nephew," said Buckingham, "'t is very certain Fitzwarine was likewise traitor."

"Wilt thou forget those bold words he spake in this chamber, sire, three days agone?" cried Sir John Holland.

"Wilt thou forget that insult to madame the Queen, who must needs ride with his wanton that night on Blackheath?" sneered Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford.

"O sire," said Jack Straw soft,--"is 't known of these gentles as how Fitzwarine traversed England a year and more, in company of this same leman, stirring up revolt?"

There went up a shout of wrath and amaze from all those lordings:--

"Sire!" they cried, and every eye bent on the King craved vengeance.

"Pah!" said he. "'T is not question of Etienne, but of this worm that speweth venom. Let him be despatched forthwith!"

Then Jack Straw cast himself down on the floor and writhed on his belly as far as the King's feet, crying:--

"Mercy!--Grace!--Mercy!--Mercy!--I will reveal the plot. O sire, I will unfold the secrets of this Rising! Give me only my life, my life, sire, my life!"

"Well, take thy life! Thou shalt go free,--if thou tell all," said Richard, with averted face. "Lift the fellow to his knees, thou,--yeoman guard,--and wipe his s...o...b..r off my shoes!"

So when Jack Straw was got to his knees and a stout yeoman on either side holding him up underneath his arm-pits, for that he was weak with fright and lack of food, he began to tell his tale.

"'T was in Long Will's cot o' Cornhill,--the Chantry Priest, him that writ the Vision concerning Piers Ploughman,--'t was in his house this plot was hatched.--Water, my lords!--Pity, my tongue is twice its true size!"

"Verily, I believe it is so," said Richard; he would not look at Jack Straw, but sat with face turned to one side and eyes cast down. "Give him to drink," he said.

The Mayor caught a silver flagon from the table and held it to Jack's lips, and when he had drunk, my Lord of Oxford ground the flagon beneath his heel and kicked it shapeless into a corner.

"'T was o' Cornhill, lordings, and Will was there, and the light o'

love, his daughter, and Wat Tyler,--and--and--Fitzwarine"--

"And thou," said Richard.

"But I was no leader in this Rising, sire. Wat would be leader,--a proud, wrathful man. And the traitor Fitzwarine hath evil entreated me oft, for that he would hold second place to Wat."

"Where was John Ball?" asked Salisbury.

"John Ball also was there," cried Jack very eager. "'T was he set us all agog in the beginning with his preaching and prating."

"Get on! The plot!" Richard interrupted impatiently.

"Mercy, sire,--grace!--'T was agreed as how all knights, squires, and gentlemen should be slain, and the King made to lead this revolution.

For this cause came Wat to Smithfield yester morn, to take the King.

Mercy!--And until all England was risen up, the King should be called leader of the people. Then should we slay all the lords.--Ah, pity, gentles!--And when was none left to succour the King,--Wat Tyler would have had the King slain.--Sire, not I, but Wat!--Grace!--Pardon!"