the money was collected,
they all began to make common cause, and, when the rebellion broke
out, they rose in one mass, freemen and bondmen together.

There was a certain priest named John Ball, who, before the rebellion
broke out, had done much to enlighten the people as to their rights,
and had attempted to induce them to seek redress at first in a
peaceable manner. He used to make speeches to the people in the
market-place, representing to them the hardships which they endured by
the oppressions of the nobility, and urging them to combine together
to petition the king for a redress of their grievances. "The king will
listen to us, I am sure," said he, "if we go to him together in a body
and make our request; but if he will not hear us, then we must redress
our grievances ourselves the best way we can."

The example of Ball was followed by many other persons; and, as always
happens in such cases, the excitement among the people, and their
eagerness to hear, brought out a great many spectators, whose only
object was to see who could awaken the resentment and anger of their
audiences in the highest degree, and produce the greatest possible
excitement. These orators, having begun with condemning the
extravagant wealth, the haughty pretensions, and the cruel oppressions
of the nobles, and contrasting them with the extreme misery and want
of the common people, whom they held as slaves, proceeded at length to
denounce all inequalities in human condition, and to demand that all
things should be held in common.

"Things will never go on well in England," said they, "until all these
distinctions shall be leveled, and the time shall come when there
shall be neither vassal nor lord, and these proud nobles shall be no
more masters than ourselves. How ill have they used us! And what
right have they to hold us in this miserable bondage? Are we not all
descended from the same parents, Adam and Eve? What right have one set
of men to make another set their slaves? What right have they to
compel us to toil all our lives to earn money, that they may live at
ease and spend it? They are clothed in velvets and rich stuffs,
ornamented with ermine and furs, while we are half naked, or clothed
only in rags. They have wines, and spices, and fine bread, while we
have nothing but rye, and the refuse of the straw. They have manors
and handsome seats, while we live in miserable cabins, and have to
brave the wind and rain at our labor in the fi