Mary's, greets well all manner of men, and
bids them in the name of the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, to
stand together manfully in truth. Help truth and truth shall help you.

"John Ball greeteth you all,
And doth to understand he hath rung your bell.
Now with right and might, will and skill,
God speed every dell.

John the Miller asketh help to turn his mill right:
He hath ground small, small:
The King's Son of Heaven will pay for it all.
Look thy mill go right, with its four sails dight.

With right and with might, with skill and with will,
And let the post stand in steadfastness.
Let right help might, and skill go before will,
Then shall our mill go aright;
But if might go before right, and will go before skill,
Then is our mill mis-a-dight."

Sometimes it is under the signature of John Trueman that John Ball writes:

"Beware ere ye be woe;
Know your friend from your foe;
Take enough and cry "Ho!"
And do well and better and flee from sin,
And seek out peace and dwell therein--
So biddeth John Trueman and all his fellows."

A more definite note was struck when it seemed to Ball and his colleagues
that the time was ripe for revolution, and the word was given that appeal
must be made to the boy-king--Richard was only eleven years old when he
came to the throne in 1377.

"Let us go to the King, and remonstrate with him, telling him we must have
it otherwise, or we ourselves shall find the remedy. He is young. If we
wait on him in a body, all those who come under the name of serf, or are
held in bondage, will follow us in the hope of being free. When the King
shall see us we shall obtain a favourable answer, or we must then ourselves
seek to amend our condition."

In another letter John Ball greets John Nameless, John the Miller, and John
Carter, and bids them stand together in God's name, and beware of guile: he
bids Piers Plowman "go to his work and chastise well Hob the Robber (Sir
Robert Hales, the King's Treasurer); and take with you John Trueman and all
his fellows, and look that you choose one head and no more."

These letters and the preaching were accepted by willing minds. John Ball
was in prison--in the jail of Archbishop Sudbury at Maidstone--in the
spring of 1381, but the peasants were organised and ready to revolt. If Wat
Tyler is the recognised leader of the rebel forces--"the one head"--John
Ball's was the work of prepar