CHAPTER VII

MORE WORDS AT THE CROSS

I got into my old place again on the steps of the cross, Will Green
beside me, and above me John Ball and Jack Straw again. The moon was
half-way up the heavens now, and the short summer night had begun,
calm and fragrant, with just so much noise outside our quiet circle as
made one feel the world alive and happy.

We waited silently until we had heard John Ball and the story of what
was to do; and presently he began to speak.

"Good people, it is begun, but not ended. Which of you is hardy
enough to wend the road to London to-morrow?"

"All! All!" they shouted.

"Yea," said he, "even so I deemed of you. Yet forsooth hearken!
London is a great and grievous city; and mayhappen when ye come
thither it shall seem to you overgreat to deal with, when ye remember
the little townships and the cots ye came from.

"Moreover, when ye dwell here in Kent ye think forsooth of your
brethren in Essex or Suffolk, and there belike an end. But from
London ye may have an inkling of all the world, and over-burdensome
maybe shall that seem to you, a few and a feeble people.