period I have undertaken to tell you about specially, I will give you
one of the latter of these concerning the death of King John, for
whom the people imagined a more dramatic cause of death than mere
indigestion, of which in all probability he really died; and you may
take it for a specimen of popular literature of the fourteenth
century.

I can here make bold to quote from memory, without departing very
widely from the old text, since the quaint wording of the original,
and the spirit of bold and blunt heroism which it breathes, have
fixed it in my mind for ever.

The king, you must remember, had halted at Swinestead Abbey, in
Lincolnshire, in his retreat from the hostile barons and their French
allies, and had lost all his baggage by the surprise of the advancing
tide in the Wash; so that he might well be in a somewhat sour mood.

Says the tale: So the king went to meat in the hall, and before him
was a loaf; and he looked grimly on it and said, 'For how much is
such a loaf sold in this realm?'

'Sir, for one penny,' said they.

Then the king smote the board with his fist and said, 'By God, if I
live for one year such a loaf shall be sold for twelve pence!'

That heard one of the monks who stood thereby, and he thought and
considered that his hour and time to die was come, and that it would
be a good deed to slay so cruel a king and so evil a lord.