"True enough, Clement; well, we may hope that when men's minds become
calmer the people of Dartford will think it best to offer to pay a fine in
order to escape bloodshed."

"It may be so," the man said, shaking his head, "though I doubt it. There
has been too much preaching of sedition. I say not that the people have
not many and real grievances, but the way to right them is not by the
taking up of arms, but by petition to the crown and parliament."

He rode on, and Edgar, going in to his father, told him what he had heard
from Clement.

"'Tis what I feared," Mr. Ormskirk said. "The English are a patient race,
and not given, as are those of foreign nations, to sudden bursts of rage.
So long as the taxation was legal they would pay, however hardly it
pressed them, but when it comes to demanding money for children under the
age, and to insulting them, it is pushing matters too far, and I fear with
you, Edgar, that the trouble will spread. I am sorry for these people, for
however loudly they may talk and however valiant they may be, they can
assuredly offer but a weak resistance to a strong body of men-at-arms, and
they will but make their case worse by taking up arms.

"History shows that mobs are seldom able to maintain a struggle against
authority. Just at first success may attend them, but as soon as those who
govern recover from their first surprise they are not long before they put
down the movement. I am sorry, not only for the men themselves, but for
others who, like myself, altogether disapprove of any rising. Just at
first the mob may obey its leaders and act with moderation; but they are
like wild beasts--the sight of blood maddens them--and if this rising