il we had heard John Ball and the story of what
was to do; and presently he began to speak.

"Good people, it is begun, but not ended. Which of you is hardy enough
to wend the road to London to-morrow?"

"All! All!" they shouted.

"Yea," said he, "even so I deemed of you. Yet forsooth hearken!
London is a great and grievous city; and mayhappen when ye come thither
it shall seem to you overgreat to deal with, when ye remember the
little townships and the cots ye came from.

"Moreover, when ye dwell here in Kent ye think forsooth of your
brethren in Essex or Suffolk, and there belike an end. But from London
ye may have an inkling of all the world, and over-burdensome maybe
shall that seem to you, a few and a feeble people.

"Nevertheless I say to you, remember the Fellowship, in the hope of
which ye have this day conquered; and when ye come to London be wise
and wary; and that is as much as to say, be bold and hardy; for in
these days are ye building a house which shall not be overthrown, and
the world shall not be too great or too little to hold it: for indeed
it shall be the world itself, set free from evil-doers for friends to
dwell in."

He ceased awhile, but they hearkened still, as if something more was
coming. Then he said:

"To-morrow we shall take the road for Rochester; and most like it were
well to see what Sir John Newton in the castle may say to us: for the
man is no ill man, and hath a tongue well-shapen for words; and it were
well that we had him out of the castle and away with us, and that we
put a word in his mouth to say to the King. And wot ye well, good
fellows, that by then we come to Rochester we shall be a goodly
company, and ere we come to Blackheath a very great company; and at
London Bridge who shall stay our host?

"Therefore there is nought that can undo us except our own selves and
our hearkening to soft words from those who would slay us. They shall
bid us go home and abide peacefully with our wives and children while
they, the lords and councillors and lawyers, imagine counsel and remedy
for us; and even so shall our own folly bid us; and if we hearken
thereto we are undone indeed; for they shall fall upon our peace with
war, and our wives and children they shall take from us, and some of us
they shall hang, and some they shall scourge, and the others shall be
their yoke-beasts--yea, and worse, for they shall lack meat more.

"To fools hearken not, whether they be yourselves