the village wished to anger me, they would shout out, 'Here is the
magician's son,' and I had many a fight in consequence."

"Just so, Edgar; the ignorant always hate that which they cannot
understand; so Friar Bacon was persecuted, and accused of dabbling in
magic when he was making discoveries useful to mankind. I say not that
they will do any great harm when they first rise, for it cannot be said
that the serfs here are so hardly treated as they were in France, where
their lords had power of life and death over them, and could slay them
like cattle if they chose, none interfering. Hence the hatred was so deep
that in the very first outbreak the peasants fell upon the nobles and
massacred them and their families.

"Here there is no such feeling. It is against the government that taxes
them so heavily that their anger is directed, and I fear that this new
poll-tax that has been ordered will drive them to extremities. I have news
that across the river in Essex the people of some places have not only
refused to pay, but have forcibly driven away the tax-gatherers, and when
these things once begin, there is no saying how they are going to end.
However, if there is trouble, I think not that at first we shall be in any
danger here, but if they have success at first their pretensions will
grow. They will inflame themselves. The love of plunder will take the
place of their reasonable objections to over-taxation, and seeing that
they have but to stretch out their hands to take what they desire, plunder
and rapine will become general."

As Edgar walked back home he felt that there was much truth in the Prior's
remarks. He himself had heard many things said among the villagers which
showed that their patience was well-nigh at an end. Although, since he
began his studies, he had no time to keep up his former close connection