the first day of the peasant occupation of London, the
people of the town in terror, the insurgents in subjection to their
leaders, and still more so to their own ideas. Many of them were drunk,
but no outrages were committed. The influence of one terrible example
repressed all theft. Never had so orderly a mob held possession of so
great a city.

On the second day, Wat Tyler and a band of his followers forced their
way into the Tower. The knights of the garrison were panic-stricken, but
no harm was done them. The peasants, in rough good humor, took them by
the beards, and declared that they were now equals, and that in the time
to come they would be good friends and comrades.

[Illustration: WAT TYLER'S COTTAGE. Copyright, 1904, by Henry Froth.]

But this rude jollity ceased when Archbishop Sudbury, who had been
active in preventing the king from landing from the Thames, and the
ministers who were concerned in the levy of the poll-tax, fell into
their hands. Short shrift was given these detested officials. They were
dragged to Tower Hill, and their heads struck off.

"King Richard and the people!" was the rallying cry of the insurgents.
It went ill with those who hesitated to subscribe to this sentiment. So
evidently were the peasants friendly to the king that the youthful
monarch fearlessly sought them at Mile End, and held a conference with
sixty thousand of them who lay there encamped.

"I am your king and lord, good people," he boldly addressed them; "what
will ye?"

"We will that you set us free forever," was the answer of the
insurgents, "us and our lands; and that we be never named nor held for
serfs."

"I grant it," said the king.

His words were received with shouts of joy. The conference then
continued, the leaders of the peasants proposing four conditions, to all
of which the king assented. These were, first, that neither they nor
their descendants should ever be enslaved; second, that the rent of land
should be paid in money at a fixed price, not in service; third, that
they should be at liberty to buy and sell in market and elsewhere, like
other free men; fourth, that they should be pardoned for past offences.

"I grant them all," said Richard. "Charters of freedom and pardon shall
be at once issued. Go home and dwell in peace, and no harm shall come to
you."

More than thirty clerks spent the rest of that day writing at all speed
the pledges of amnesty promised by the king. These satisfied th