This then is to record, that in the days when the guilds were in revolt
against the city council, the cutlers and the fleshers alone remained
true to the noble families, and whereas they refused to take any guerdon
for their faithfulness, which must have been paid them at the cost of the
rest, they craved no more than the right of a making a goodly show in a
dance and procession at the Carnival; and they were by the same token
privileged at that time to wear apparel of velvet and silk, like gentle
folks of noble and knightly degree.

Now this dance and its appurtenances were known at the masked show, and
inasmuch as the aid of the governing class was needed to keep the streets
clear for the throng of craftsmen, and as likewise the yearly outlay was
beyond their means, the sons of the great houses took a pride in paying
goodly sums for the right of taking a place in the procession. And as
for our high-spirited young lord, skilled as he was with his weapon, he
had seen and taken part in many such gay carnival doings among the
Italians, and it was a delight to him to join in the like sport at home,
and many were fain to gaze at him rather than at the guilds.

They assembled under the walls in two bands, and marched past the town
hall and from thence to a dance of both guilds. Each had a dance of its
own. The Fleshers' was such a dance as in England is called a country
dance and they held leather-straps twisted to look like sausages; the
cutlers' dance was less clumsy, and they carried naked swords.

But the show which most delighted the bystanders was the procession of
masks, wherein, indeed, there were many things pleasant and fair to
behold.

A party of men in coarse raiment called the men of the woods, carrying