ll quietly chiming with that far-away voice
of theirs, and the long-winged dusky swifts, by no means scared by the
concourse, swung round about the cross with their wild squeals; and the
man stood still for a little, eyeing the throng, or rather looking
first at one and then another man in it, as though he were trying to
think what such an one was thinking of, or what he were fit for.
Sometimes he caught the eye of one or other, and then that kindly smile
spread over his face, but faded off it into the sternness and sadness
of a man who has heavy and great thoughts hanging about him. But when
John Ball first mounted the steps of the cross a lad at some one's
bidding had run off to stop the ringers, and so presently the voice of
the bells fell dead, leaving on men's minds that sense of blankness or
even disappointment which is always caused by the sudden stopping of a
sound one has got used to and found pleasant. But a great expectation
had fallen by now on all that throng, and no word was spoken even in a
whisper, and all men's hearts and eyes were fixed upon the dark figure
standing straight up now by the tall white shaft of the cross, his
hands stretched out before him, one palm laid upon the other.

And for me, as I made ready to hearken, I felt a joy in my soul that I
had never yet felt.

CHAPTER IV

THE VOICE OF JOHN BALL

SO now I heard John Ball; how he lifted up his voice and said:

"Ho, all ye good people! I am a priest of God, and in my day's work it
cometh that I should tell you what ye should do, and what ye should
forbear doing, and to that end I am come hither: yet first, if I myself
have wronged any man here, let him say wherein my wrongdoing lieth,
that I may ask his pardon and his pity."

A great hum of good-will ran through the crowd as he spoke; then he
smiled as in a kind of pride, and again he spoke:

"Wherefore did ye take me out of the archbishop's prison but three days
agone, when ye lighted the archbishop's house for the candle of
Canterbury, but that I might speak to you and pray you: therefore I
will not keep silence, whether I have done ill, or whether I have done
well. And herein, good fellows and my very brethren, I would have you
to follow me; and if there be such here, as I know full well there be
some, and may be a good many, who have been robbers of their neighbours
('And who is my neighbour?' quoth the rich man), or lechers, or
despiteful haters, or talebearers, or fa