her
husband and herself, and Bolle's certificate of captaincy. These they
hid in their boots or the linings of their vests, together with such
money as was necessary for the costs of travel.

Thus riding hard, for their horses were good and fresh, they came
unmolested to Cambridge on the night of the second day and slept there.
Beyond Cambridge, they were told, the country was so disturbed that
it would not be safe for them to journey. But just when they were in
despair, for even Bolle said that they must not go on, a troop of the
King's horse arrived on their way to join the Duke of Norfolk wherever
he might lie in Lincolnshire.

To their captain, one Jeffreys, Jacob showed the King's commission,
revealing who they were. Seeing that it commanded all his Grace's
officers and servants to do them service, this Captain Jeffreys said
that he would give them escort until their roads separated. So next day
they went on again. The company was not pleasant, for the men, of whom
there were about a hundred, proved rough fellows, still, having been
warned that he who insulted or laid a finger on them should be hanged,
they did them no harm. It was well, indeed, that they had their
protection, for they found the country through which they passed up in
arms, and were more than once threatened by mobs of peasants, led by
priests, who would have attacked them had they dared.

For two days they travelled thus with Captain Jeffreys, coming on the
evening of the second to Peterborough, where they found lodgings at an
inn. When they rose the next morning, however, it was to discover that
Jeffreys and his men had already gone, leaving a message to say that he
had received urgent orders to push on to Lincoln.

Now once more they told their old tale, declaring that they were
citizens of Boston, and having learned that the Fens were peaceful,
perhaps because so few people lived in them, started forward by
themselves under the guidance of Bolle, who had often journeyed through
that country, buying or selling cattle for the monks. An ill land was
it to travel in also in that wet autumn, seeing that in many places the
floods were out and the tracks were like a quagmire. The first night
they spent in a marshman's hut, listening to the pouring rain and
fearing fever and ague, especially for the boy. The next day, by good
fortune, they reached higher land and slept at a tavern.

Here they were visited by rude men, who, being of the party of