Walsingham, the
people had risen if one person had not been. And as I hear say, some
of them now be in Norwich Castle, and others be sent to London.' And
further, the said Richard said, 'If two men were gathered together,
one might say to another what he would as long as the third man was
not there; _and if three men were together_, _if two of them were
absent_, the third might say what he would in surety enough.' And he
said he knew there was a certain prophecy, which if the said Robert
would come to Bungay, he should hear it read; and that one man had
taken pains to watch in the night to write the copy of the same. And
if so be, as the prophecy saith, there shall be a rising of the
people this year or never. And that the prophecy saith the king's
grace was signified by a mowle, and that the mowle should be subduyt
and put down. And that the said Richard did hear that the Earl of
Derby was up with many; and that he should be proclaimed traitor in
those parts where he dwelleth. And also he heard, as he saith, that
a great company was fled out of the land. And that the Duke of
Norfolk's grace was in the north parts, and was so to be set about,
as he heard say, that he might not come away when he would. I pray
God that it be not so. Also he said that the prophecy saith that
three kings shall meet on Mousehold Heath, and the proudest prince in
Christendom be their subject. And that the White Lion should stay
all that business at length, and should obtain. And said, 'Farewell,
my friend, and know me another day if ye can, and God send us a quiet
world.'"

The same prophecies here alluded to were revived and repeated, together
with many doggrel rhymes, at the time of the famous Kett's rebellion.
The historian of the event says that they were rung in the ears of the
people every hour, such as

"The county Gnoffes, Hob, Dick, and Hick,
With clubbs and clowted shoon,
Shall fill the vale
Of Duffin's dale
With slaughtered bodies soon."

And also

"The headless men within the dale,
Shall there be slain both great and small."

So positively were these sort of prophecies applied to the circumstances
of the time, that the rebels who had possession of a favourable position
on the heights of the common, forsook it in expectation of realizing the
prediction by coming into the valley, "beli