Deluded men, these holds forego,
Nor trust such cunning elves:
These artful emblems tend to show
Their _clients_, not _themselves_.

'Tis all a trick; these are all shams
By which they mean to cheat you:
But have a care,--for you're the lambs,
And they the wolves that eat you.

Nor let the thought of "no delay"
To these their courts misguide you:
'Tis you're the showy horse, and they
The jockeys that will ride you.]

The din and devastation of civil strife and the smoke and flame of
conflagration have more than once surged high and furious in and around
the Temple. In Wat Tyler's rebellion many of the houses were razed by the
rioters, books and parchments were carried away and fed to bonfires, and
it was the intention of the rebels to destroy the precinct and the lawyers
together, for thus, they said, they would obliterate both unjust laws and
corrupt law-makers. The "No-Popery" rioters in 1780 marched to attack the
Temple, but were awed into flight by the apparently determined front
presented by the lawyers and students, who were really in desperate fear
themselves. Street-fights with the lawless Alsatians of the adjoining
Whitefriars region were at one time frequent.[B] In 1553, and again in
1669, the mayor of the city essayed to "pass through the cloisters with
drawn sword." The Temple claimed immunity from civic control, and on both
occasions the mayor's weapon was beaten down and a bloody affray resulted.