chastisement. If it hadn't been that Lionel and I did not wish to
become engaged in a brawl, we should have given some of them lessons in
manners."

"They are free in speech," Dame Swindon said, "and are an impudent set
of varlets. They have quick eyes and ready tongues, and are no
respecters of persons save of their masters and of citizens in a
position to lay complaints against them and to secure them punishment.
They hold together greatly, and it is as well that you should not
become engaged in a quarrel with them. At times they have raised
serious tumults, and have even set not only the watch but the citizens
at large at defiance. Strong measures have been several times taken
against them; but they are a powerful body, seeing that in every shop
there are one or more of them, and they can turn out with their clubs
many thousand strong. They have what they call their privileges, and
are as ready to defend them as are the citizens of London to uphold
their liberties. Ordinances have been passed many times by the fathers
of the city, regulating their conduct and the hours at which they may
be abroad and the carrying of clubs and matters of this kind, but the
apprentices seldom regard them, and if the watch arrest one for a
breach of regulations, he raises a cry, and in two or three minutes a
swarm of them collect and rescue the offender from his hands. Therefore
it is seldom that the watch interferes with them."

"It would almost seem then that the apprentices are in fact the
masters," Geoffrey said.

"Not quite as bad as that," Master Swindon replied. "There are the
rules which they have to obey when at home, and if not they get a
whipping; but it is difficult to keep a hand over them when they are