the deputies in a rage, treated them as if they had been guilty of
untold insolence in daring to make this request, and with harsh menaces
drove them from her presence, bidding them to see that the tax was paid,
or London should suffer bitterly for its contumacy.

The deputies withdrew with a show of respect, but with fury in their
hearts, and repaired to their council-chamber, whence the news of what
had taken place sped rapidly through the city. In her palace Queen Maud
waited in proud security, nothing doubting that she had humbled those
insolent citizens, and that the deputies would soon return ready to
creep on their knees to the foot of her throne and offer a golden
recompense for their daring demand for milder laws.

Suddenly the bells of London began to ring. In the streets adjoining
the palace loud voices were heard. People seemed gathering rapidly. What
did it mean? Were these her humbled citizens of London? Surely there
were threats mingled with those harsh cries! Threats against the queen
who had just entered London in triumph and been received with such
hearty enthusiasm! Were the Londoners mad?

She would have thought so had she been in the streets. From every house
issued a man, armed with the first weapon he could find, his face
inflamed with anger. They flocked out as tumultuously as bees from a
hive, says an old writer. The streets of London, lately quiet, were now
filled with a noisy throng, all hastening towards the palace, all
uttering threats against this haughty foreign woman, who must have lost
every drop of her English blood, they declared.

The palace was filled with alarm. It looked as if the queen's Norman
blood would be lost as well as that from her English sires. She had