the troops, and blood has been shed."

Having gone the round of the tenants, Edgar rode down to Dartford. On the
way he passed many men going in the same direction. Almost all of them
were armed with staves, pikes, axes, or bows, and he saw that the country
people had only been waiting for some act that would serve as a signal for
revolt, in order to gather as their fellows in Essex had already begun to
do. He found the streets of the town crowded with people; some were
excited and noisy, but the mass had a serious and determined air that
showed they were resolved upon going through with the work that had been
begun. In many places groups of men were assembled in open spaces,
listening to the talk of others standing on tables or barrels that had
been brought for the purpose.

Their speeches were all to the same point, and Edgar saw that they were
the result of a previous agreement.

"Men of Kent!" one exclaimed, "the day has come when you have to prove
that you are men, and not mere beasts of burden, to be trodden under foot.
You all know how we are oppressed, how illegal exactions are demanded of
us, and how, as soon as one is paid, some fresh tax is heaped on us. What
are we? Men without a voice, men whom the government regard as merely
beings from whom money is to be wrung. Nor is this all. 'Tis not enough
that we must starve in order that our oppressors may roll in wealth, may
scatter it lavishly as they choose, and indulge in every luxury and in
every pleasure. No. The hounds sent among us to wring the last penny from
us now take to insulting our wives and daughters, and at last our patience
is at an end.

"We have news this morning from all the country round that the people are