should become a serious one, you will see that there will be burnings and
ravagings. Heads will be smitten off, and after slaying those they
consider the chief culprits, they will turn against all in a better
condition than themselves.

"The last time Sir Ralph De Courcy was over here he told me that the
priest they called Jack Straw and many others were, he heard, not only
preaching sedition against the government, but the seizure of the goods of
the wealthy, the confiscation of the estates of the monasteries, and the
division of the wealth of the rich. A nice programme, and just the one
that would be acceptable to men without a penny in their pockets. Sir
Ralph said that he would give much if he, with half a dozen men-at-arms,
could light upon a meeting of these people, when he would give them a
lesson that would silence their saucy tongues for a long time to come. I
told him I was glad that he had not the opportunity, for that methought it
would do more harm than good. 'You won't think so,' he said, 'when there
is a mob of these rascals thundering at your door, and resolved to make a
bonfire of your precious manuscripts and to throw you into the midst of
it.' 'I have no doubt,' I replied, 'that at such a time I should welcome
the news of the arrival of you and the men-at-arms, but I have no store of
goods that would attract their cupidity.' 'No,' the knight said, 'but you
know that among the common people you are accounted a magician, because
you are wiser than they are.'

"'I know that,' I replied; 'it is the same in all countries. The credulous
mob think that a scholar, although he may spend his life in trying to make
a discovery that will be of inestimable value to them, is a magician and
in league with the devil. However, although not a fighting man, I may
possess means of defence that are to the full as serviceable as swords and
battle-axes. I have long foreseen that should trouble arise, the villagers