and two at the end doffed their caps. They were about two hundred, and
one rode in front with a banner borne before him; but it was a still hot
day, and Master Richard could not see the device, for the folds hung
about the staff.

He saw other folks after that here and there, although he avoided the
villages where he could; but he got no supper, and an hour before sunset
he came to the ferry over against Westminster. The wherries were drawn
up on the beach, and he came down to these past Lambeth House, wondering
how he was to get over.

He besought one man for the love of Jesu to take him over, but he would
not; and another for the love of Mary, and a third for the sake of the
Rood of Bromholm, [a famous relic of the True Cross.] and a fourth for
the love of saint Anthony. And at that they laughed at him, coming round
him and looking on him curiously, and crying that they would have all the
saints out of him before _Avemaria_, and asking to know his business.
When he told them in his simplicity that he was to see the King, they
laughed the more, and said that the King was gone to be a monk at saint
Edmond's, and that he had best look for him there.

Then he asked yet another, a great fellow with a hairy face and chest,
to take him over for the love of saint Denis and saint Giles, and the
fellow swore a great oath, elbowed his way out of the press that were
all staring and laughing, and bade him follow.

So he got into the boat and sat there while the man carried down the
oars, and all the rest crowded to look and question and mock. He told me
that he supposed at the time that all the folks looked at him for that
they were not used to see solitaries, but I do not think it was that. I