re was but a glimmer of light in the church now,
but what there was, was no longer the strange light of the moon, but
the first coming of the kindly day.

"Yea," said John Ball, "'tis the twilight of the dawn. God and St.
Christopher send us a good day!"

"John Ball," said I, "I have told thee that thy death will bring about
that which thy life has striven for: thinkest thou that the thing which
thou strivest for is worth the labour? or dost thou believe in the tale
I have told thee of the days to come?"

He said: "I tell thee once again that I trust thee for a seer; because
no man could make up such a tale as thou; the things which thou tellest
are too wonderful for a minstrel, the tale too grievous. And whereas
thou askest as to whether I count my labour lost, I say nay; if so be
that in those latter times (and worser than ours they will be) men
shall yet seek a remedy: therefore again I ask thee, is it so that they
shall?"

"Yea," said I, "and their remedy shall be the same as thine, although
the days be different: for if the folk be enthralled, what remedy save
that they be set free? and if they have tried many roads towards
freedom, and found that they led no-whither, then shall they try yet
another. Yet in the days to come they shall be slothful to try it,
because their masters shall be so much mightier than thine, that they
shall not need to show the high hand, and until the days get to their
evilest, men shall be cozened into thinking that it is of their own
free will that they must needs buy leave to labour by pawning their
labour that is to be. Moreover, your lords and masters seem very
mighty to you, each one of them, and so they are, but they are few; and
the masters of the days to come shall not each one of them seem very
mighty to the men of those days, but they shall be very many, and they
shall be of one intent in these matters without knowing it; like as one
sees the oars of a galley when the rowers are hidden, that rise and
fall as it were with one will."

"And yet," he said, "shall it not be the same with those that these men
devour? shall not they also have one will?"

"Friend," I said, "they shall have the will to live, as the wretchedest
thing living has: therefore shall they sell themselves that they may
live, as I told thee; and their hard need shall be their lord's easy
livelihood, and because of it he shall sleep without fear, since their
need compelleth them not to loiter by the wa