would ye have been stronger to bear; but ye, ye are not strong to
bear, but to do.

"And wot ye why we are come to you this fair eve of holiday? and wot
ye why I have been telling of fellowship to you? Yea, forsooth, I
deem ye wot well, that it is for this cause, that ye might bethink you
of your fellowship with the men of Essex."

His last word let loose the shout that had been long on all men's
lips, and great and fierce it was as it rang shattering through the
quiet upland village. But John Ball held up his hand, and the shout
was one and no more.

Then he spoke again:

"Men of Kent, I wot well that ye are not so hard bested as those of
other shires, by the token of the day when behind the screen of leafy
boughs ye met Duke William with bill and bow as he wended Londonward
from that woeful field of Senlac; but I have told of fellowship, and
ye have hearkened and understood what the Holy Church is, whereby ye
know that ye are fellows of the saints in heaven and the poor men of
Essex; and as one day the saints shall call you to the heavenly feast,
so now do the poor men call you to the battle.

"Men of Kent, ye dwell fairly here, and your houses are framed of
stout oak beams, and your own lands ye till; unless some accursed
lawyer with his false lying sheepskin and forged custom of the Devil's
Manor hath stolen it from you; but in Essex slaves they be and
villeins, and worse they shall be, and the lords swear that ere a year
be over ox and horse shall go free in Essex, and man and woman shall