A Dream of John Ball
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William Morris >> A Dream of John Ball
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But John Ball said in a great voice from the cross, "Hear ye the
tidings on the way, fellows! Hold ye together and look to your
gear; yet hurry not, for no great matter shall this be. I wot
well there is little force between Canterbury and Kingston,
for the lords are looking north of Thames toward Wat Tyler and
his men. Yet well it is, well it is!"
The crowd opened and spread out a little, and the men moved about
in it, some tightening a girdle, some getting their side arms
more within reach of their right hands, and those who had bows
stringing them.
Will Green set hand and foot to the great shapely piece of
polished red yew, with its shining horn tips, which he carried,
and bent it with no seeming effort; then he reached out his hand
over his shoulder and drew out a long arrow, smooth, white,
beautifully balanced, with a barbed iron head at one end, a horn
nock and three strong goose feathers at the other. He held it
loosely between the finger and thumb of his right hand, and there
he stood with a thoughtful look on his face, and in his hands one
of the most terrible weapons which a strong man has ever
carried, the English long-bow and cloth-yard shaft.
But all this while the sound of the horse's hoofs was growing
nearer, and presently from the corner of the road amidst the
orchards broke out our long friend, his face red in the sun near
sinking now. He waved his right hand as he came in sight of us,
and sang out, "Bills and bows! bills and bows!" and the whole
throng turned towards him and raised a great shout.
He reined up at the edge of the throng, and spoke in a loud
voice, so that all might hear him:
"Fellows, these are the tidings; even while our priest was
speaking we heard a horn blow far off; so I bade the sergeant we
have taken, and who is now our fellow-in-arms, to tell me where
away it was that there would be folk a-gathering, and what they
were; and he did me to wit that mayhappen Sir John Newton was
stirring from Rochester Castle; or, maybe, it was the sheriff
and Rafe Hopton with him; so I rode off what I might towards
Hartlip, and I rode warily, and that was well, for as I came
through a little wood between Hartlip and Guildstead, I saw
beyond it a gleam of steel, and lo in the field there a company,
and a pennon of Rafe Hopton's arms, and that is blue and thereon
three silver fish: and a pennon of the sheriff's arms, and that
is a green tree; and withal another pennon of three red kine, and
whose they be I know not.[1]
[1] Probably one of the Calverlys, a Cheshire family, one of whom
was a noted captain in the French wars.
"There tied I my horse in the middle of the wood, and myself I
crept along the dyke to see more and to hear somewhat; and no
talk I heard to tell of save at whiles a big knight talking to
five or six others, and saying somewhat, wherein came the words
London and Nicholas Bramber, and King Richard; but I saw that of
men-at-arms and sergeants there might be a hundred, and of
bows not many, but of those outland arbalests maybe a fifty; and
so, what with one and another of servants and tipstaves and lads,
some three hundred, well armed, and the men-at-arms of the best.
Forsooth, my masters, there had I been but a minute, ere the big
knight broke off his talk, and cried out to the music to blow up,
`And let us go look on these villeins,' said he; and withal the
men began to gather in a due and ordered company, and their faces
turned hitherward; forsooth, I got to my horse, and led him out
of the wood on the other side, and so to saddle and away along
the green roads; neither was I seen or chased. So look ye to it,
my masters, for these men will be coming to speak with us; nor is
there need for haste, but rather for good speed; for in some
twenty or thirty minutes will be more tidings to hand."
By this time one of our best-armed men had got through the throng
and was standing on the cross beside John Ball. When the
long man had done, there was confused noise of talk for a while,
and the throng spread itself out more and more, but not in a
disorderly manner; the bowmen drawing together toward the
outside, and the billmen forming behind them. Will Green was
still standing beside me and had hold of my arm, as though he
knew both where he and I were to go.
"Fellows," quoth the captain from the cross, "belike this stour
shall not live to be older than the day, if ye get not into a
plump together for their arbalestiers to shoot bolts into, and
their men-at-arms to thrust spears into. Get you to the edge of
the crofts and spread out there six feet between man and man, and
shoot, ye bowmen, from the hedges, and ye with the staves keep
your heads below the level of the hedges, or else for all they be
thick a bolt may win its way in."
He grinned as he said this, and there was laughter enough in
the throng to have done honour to a better joke.
Then he sung out, "Hob Wright, Rafe Wood, John Pargetter, and
thou Will Green, bestir ye and marshal the bowshot; and thou
Nicholas Woodyer shall be under me Jack Straw in ordering of the
staves. Gregory Tailor and John Clerk, fair and fine are ye clad
in the arms of the Canterbury bailiffs; ye shall shine from afar;
go ye with the banner into the highway, and the bows on either
side shall ward you; yet jump, lads, and over the hedge with you
when the bolts begin to fly your way! Take heed, good fellows
all, that our business is to bestride the highway, and not let
them get in on our flank the while; so half to the right, half to
the left of the highway. Shoot straight and strong, and waste no
breath with noise; let the loose of the bowstring cry for you!
and look you! think it no loss of manhood to cover your bodies
with tree and bush; for one of us who know is worth a hundred
of those proud fools. To it, lads, and let them see what the
grey goose bears between his wings! Abide us here, brother John
Ball, and pray for us if thou wilt; but for me, if God will not
do for Jack Straw what Jack Straw would do for God were he in
like case, I can see no help for it."
"Yea, forsooth," said the priest, "here will I abide you my
fellows if ye come back; or if ye come not back, here will I
abide the foe. Depart, and the blessing of the Fellowship be
with you."
Down then leapt Jack Straw from the cross, and the whole throng
set off without noise or hurry, soberly and steadily in outward
seeming. Will Green led me by the hand as if I were a boy, yet
nothing he said, being forsooth intent on his charge. We were
some four hundred men in all; but I said to myself that without
some advantage of the ground we were lost men before the men-at-
arms that long Gregory Tailor had told us of; for I had not
seen as yet the yard-long shaft at its work.
We and somewhat more than half of our band turned into the
orchards on the left of the road, through which the level rays of
the low sun shone brightly. The others took up their position on
the right side of it. We kept pretty near to the road till we
had got through all the closes save the last, where we were
brought up by a hedge and a dyke, beyond which lay a wide-open
nearly treeless space, not of tillage, as at the other side of
the place, but of pasture, the common grazing ground of the
township. A little stream wound about through the ground, with a
few willows here and there; there was only a thread of water in
it in this hot summer tide, but its course could easily be traced
by the deep blue-green of the rushes that grew plenteously in the
bed. Geese were lazily wandering about and near this brook, and
a herd of cows, accompanied by the town bull, were feeding on
quietly, their heads all turned one way; while half a dozen
calves marched close together side by side like a plump of
soldiers, their tails swinging in a kind of measure to keep off
the flies, of which there was great plenty. Three or four lads
and girls were sauntering about, heeding or not heeding the
cattle. They looked up toward us as we crowded into the last
close, and slowly loitered off toward the village. Nothing
looked like battle; yet battle sounded in the air; for now we
heard the beat of the horse-hoofs of the men-at-arms coming on
towards us like the rolling of distant thunder, and growing
louder and louder every minute; we were none too soon in turning
to face them. Jack Straw was on our side of the road, and with a
few gestures and a word or two he got his men into their places.
Six archers lined the hedge along the road where the banner of
Adam and Eve, rising above the grey leaves of the apple-trees,
challenged the new-comers; and of the billmen also he kept a good
few ready to guard the road in case the enemy should try to
rush it with the horsemen. The road, not being a Roman one, was,
you must remember, little like the firm smooth country roads that
you are used to; it was a mere track between the hedges and
fields, partly grass-grown, and cut up by the deep-sunk ruts
hardened by the drought of summer. There was a stack of fagot
and small wood on the other side, and our men threw themselves
upon it and set to work to stake the road across for a rough
defence against the horsemen.
What befell more on the road itself I had not much time to note,
for our bowmen spread themselves out along the hedge that looked
into the pasture-field, leaving some six feet between man and
man; the rest of the billmen went along with the bowmen, and
halted in clumps of some half-dozen along their line, holding
themselves ready to help the bowmen if the enemy should run up
under their shafts, or to run on to lengthen the line in case
they should try to break in on our flank. The hedge in front of
us was of quick. It had been strongly plashed in the past
February, and was stiff and stout. It stood on a low bank;
moreover, the level of the orchard was some thirty inches higher
than that of the field. and the ditch some two foot deeper than
the face of the field. The field went winding round to beyond
the church, making a quarter of a circle about the village, and
at the western end of it were the butts whence the folk were
coming from shooting when I first came into the village street.
Altogether, to me who knew nothing of war the place seemed
defensible enough. I have said that the road down which Long
Gregory came with his tidings went north; and that was its
general direction; but its first reach was nearly east, so that
the low sun was not in the eyes of any of us, and where Will
Green took his stand, and I with him, it was nearly at our backs.
CHAPTER VI
THE BATTLE AT THE TOWNSHIP'S END
Our men had got into their places leisurely and coolly enough,
and with no lack of jesting and laughter. As we went along the
hedge by the road, the leaders tore off leafy twigs from the low
oak bushes therein, and set them for a rallying sign in their
hats and headpieces, and two or three of them had horns for
blowing.
Will Green, when he got into his place, which was thirty yards
from where Jack Straw and the billmen stood in the corner of the
two hedges, the road hedge and the hedge between the close and
field, looked to right and left of him a moment, then turned to
the man on the left and said:
"Look you, mate, when you hear our horns blow ask no more
questions, but shoot straight and strong at whatso cometh towards
us, till ye hear more tidings from Jack Straw or from me. Pass
that word onward."
Then he looked at me and said:
"Now, lad from Essex, thou hadst best sit down out of the way at
once: forsooth I wot not why I brought thee hither. Wilt thou
not back to the cross, for thou art little of a fighting-man?"
"Nay," said I, "I would see the play. What shall come of it?"
"Little," said he; "we shall slay a horse or twain maybe. I will
tell thee, since thou hast not seen a fight belike, as I have
seen some, that these men-at-arms cannot run fast either to the
play or from it, if they be a-foot; and if they come on a-
horseback, what shall hinder me to put a shaft into the poor
beast? But down with thee on the daisies, for some shot there
will be first."
As he spoke he was pulling off his belts and other gear, and
his coat, which done, he laid his quiver on the ground, girt him
again, did his axe and buckler on to his girdle, and hung up his
other attire on the nearest tree behind us. Then he opened his
quiver and took out of it some two dozen of arrows, which he
stuck in the ground beside him ready to his hand. Most of the
bowmen within sight were doing the like.
As I glanced toward the houses I saw three or four bright figures
moving through the orchards, and presently noted that they were
women, all clad more or less like the girl in the Rose, except
that two of them wore white coifs on their heads. Their errand
there was clear, for each carried a bundle of arrows under her
arm.
One of them came straight up to Will Green, and I could see at
once that she was his daughter. She was tall and strongly made,
with black hair like her father, somewhat comely, though no great
beauty; but as they met, her eyes smiled even more than her
mouth, and made her face look very sweet and kind, and the smile
was answered back in a way so quaintly like to her father's face,
that I too smiled for goodwill and pleasure.
"Well, well, lass," said he, "dost thou think that here is Crecy
field toward, that ye bring all this artillery? Turn back, my
girl, and set the pot on the fire; for that shall we need when we
come home, I and this ballad-maker here."
"Nay," she said, nodding kindly at me, "if this is to be no
Crecy, then may I stop to see, as well as the ballad-maker, since
he hath neither sword nor staff?"
"Sweetling," he said, "get thee home in haste. This play is but
little, yet mightest thou be hurt in it; and trust me the time
may come, sweetheart, when even thou and such as thou shalt hold
a sword or a staff. Ere the moon throws a shadow we shall be
back."
She turned away lingering, not without tears on her face,
laid the sheaf of arrows at the foot of the tree, and hastened
off through the orchard. I was going to say something, when Will
Green held up his hand as who would bid us hearken. The noise of
the horse-hoofs, after growing nearer and nearer, had ceased
suddenly, and a confused murmur of voices had taken the place of
it.
"Get thee down, and take cover, old lad," said Will Green; "the
dance will soon begin, and ye shall hear the music presently."
Sure enough as I slipped down by the hedge close to which I had
been standing, I heard the harsh twang of the bow-strings, one,
two, three, almost together, from the road, and even the whew of
the shafts, though that was drowned in a moment by a confused but
loud and threatening shout from the other side, and again the
bowstrings clanged, and this time a far-off clash of arms
followed, and therewithal that cry of a strong man that comes
without his will, and is so different from his wonted voice that
one has a guess thereby of the change that death is. Then for a
while was almost silence; nor did our horns blow up, though some
half-dozen of the billmen had leapt into the road when the bows
first shot. But presently came a great blare of trumpets and
horns from the other side, and therewith as it were a river of
steel and bright coats poured into the field before us, and still
their horns blew as they spread out toward the left of our line;
the cattle in the pasture-field, heretofore feeding quietly,
seemed frightened silly by the sudden noise, and ran about tail
in air and lowing loudly; the old bull with his head a little
lowered, and his stubborn legs planted firmly, growling
threateningly; while the geese about the brook waddled away
gobbling and squeaking; all which seemed so strange to us along
with the threat of sudden death that rang out from the bright
array over against us, that we laughed outright, the most of
us, and Will Green put down his head in mockery of the bull and
grunted like him, whereat we laughed yet more. He turned round
to me as he nocked his arrow, and said:
"I would they were just fifty paces nigher, and they move not.
Ho! Jack Straw, shall we shoot?"
For the latter-named was nigh us now; he shook his head and said
nothing as he stood looking at the enemy's line.
"Fear not but they are the right folk, Jack," quoth Will Green.
"Yea, yea," said he, "but abide awhile; they could make nought of
the highway, and two of their sergeants had a message from the
grey-goose feather. Abide, for they have not crossed the road to
our right hand, and belike have not seen our fellows on the other
side, who are now for a bushment to them."
I looked hard at the man. He was a tall, wiry, and broad-
shouldered fellow, clad in a handsome armour of bright steel that
certainly had not been made for a yeoman, but over it he had a
common linen smock-frock or gabardine, like our field workmen
wear now or used to wear, and in his helmet he carried instead of
a feather a wisp of wheaten straw. He bore a heavy axe in his
hand besides the sword he was girt with, and round his neck hung
a great horn for blowing. I should say that I knew that there
were at least three "Jack Straws" among the fellowship of the
discontented, one of whom was over in Essex.
As we waited there, every bowman with his shaft nocked on the
string, there was a movement in the line opposite, and presently
came from it a little knot of three men, the middle one on
horseback, the other two armed with long-handled glaives; all
three well muffled up in armour. As they came nearer I could see
that the horseman had a tabard over his armour, gaily embroidered
with a green tree on a gold ground, and in his hand a
trumpet.
"They are come to summon us. Wilt thou that he speak, Jack?"
said Will Green.
"Nay," said the other; "yet shall he have warning first. Shoot
when my horn blows!"
And therewith he came up to the hedge, climbed over, slowly
because of his armour, and stood some dozen yards out in the
field. The man on horseback put his trumpet to his mouth and
blew a long blast, and then took a scroll into his hand and made
as if he were going to read; but Jack Straw lifted up his voice
and cried out:
"Do it not, or thou art but dead! We will have no accursed
lawyers and their sheep-skins here! Go back to those that sent
thee----"
But the man broke in in a loud harsh voice:
"Ho! YE PEOPLE! what will ye gathering in arms?"
Then cried Jack Straw:
"Sir Fool, hold your peace till ye have heard me, or else we
shoot at once. Go back to those that sent thee, and tell them
that we free men of Kent are on the way to London to speak with
King Richard, and to tell him that which he wots not; to wit,
that there is a certain sort of fools and traitors to the realm
who would put collars on our necks and make beasts of us, and
that it is his right and his devoir to do as he swore when he was
crowned and anointed at Westminster on the Stone of Doom, and
gainsay these thieves and traitors; and if he be too weak, then
shall we help him; and if he will not be king, then shall we have
one who will be, and that is the King's Son of Heaven. Now,
therefore, if any withstand us on our lawful errand as we go to
speak with our own king and lord, let him look to it. Bear back
this word to them that sent thee. But for thee, hearken, thou
bastard of an inky sheep-skin! get thee gone and tarry not;
three times shall I lift up my hand, and the third time look to
thyself, for then shalt thou hear the loose of our bowstrings,
and after that nought else till thou hearest the devil bidding
thee welcome to hell!"
Our fellows shouted, but the summoner began again, yet in a
quavering voice:
"Ho! YE PEOPLE! what will ye gathering in arms? Wot ye not that
ye are doing or shall do great harm, loss, and hurt to the king's
lieges----"
He stopped; Jack Straw's hand was lowered for the second time.
He looked to his men right and left, and then turned rein and
turned tail, and scuttled back to the main body at his swiftest.
Huge laughter rattled out all along our line as Jack Straw
climbed back into the orchard grinning also.
Then we noted more movement in the enemy's line. They were
spreading the archers and arbalestiers to our left, and the men-
at-arms and others also spread some, what under the three
pennons of which Long Gregory had told us, and which were plain
enough to us in the dear evening. Presently the moving line
faced us, and the archers set off at a smart pace toward us, the
men-at-arms holding back a little behind them. I knew now that
they had been within bowshot all along, but our men were loth to
shoot before their first shots would tell, like those half-dozen
in the road when, as they told me afterwards, a plump of their
men-at-arms had made a show of falling on.
But now as soon as those men began to move on us directly in
face, Jack Straw put his horn to his lips and blew a loud rough
blast that was echoed by five or six others along the orchard
hedge. Every man had his shaft nocked on the string; I watched
them, and Will Green specially; he and his bow and its string
seemed all of a piece, so easily by seeming did he draw the nock
of the arrow to his ear. A moment, as he took his aim, and
then--O then did I understand the meaning of the awe with
which the ancient poet speaks of the loose of the god Apollo's
bow; for terrible indeed was the mingled sound of the twanging
bowstring and the whirring shaft so close to me.
I was now on my knees right in front of Will and saw all clearly;
the arbalestiers (for no long-bow men were over against our
stead) had all of them bright headpieces, and stout body-armour
of boiled leather with metal studs, and as they came towards us,
I could see over their shoulders great wooden shields hanging at
their backs. Further to our left their long-bow men had shot
almost as soon as ours, and I heard or seemed to hear the rush of
the arrows through the apple-boughs and a man's cry therewith;
but with us the long-bow had been before the cross-bow; one of
the arbalestiers fell outright, his great shield clattering down
on him, and moved no more; while three others were hit and were
crawling to the rear. The rest had shouldered their bows and
were aiming, but I thought unsteadily; and before the
triggers were drawn again Will Green had nocked and loosed, and
not a few others of our folk; then came the wooden hail of the
bolts rattling through the boughs, but all overhead and no one
hit.
The next time Will Green nocked his arrow he drew with a great
shout, which all our fellows took up; for the arbalestiers
instead of turning about in their places covered by their great
shields and winding up their cross-bows for a second shot, as is
the custom of such soldiers, ran huddling together toward their
men-at-arms, our arrows driving thump-thump into their shields as
they ran: I saw four lying on the field dead or sore wounded.
But our archers shouted again, and kept on each plucking the
arrows from the ground, and nocking and loosing swiftly but
deliberately at the line before them; indeed now was the time for
these terrible bowmen, for as Will Green told me afterwards they
always reckoned to kill through cloth or leather at five
hundred yards, and they had let the cross-bow men come nearly
within three hundred, and these were now all mingled and muddled
up with the men-at-arms at scant five hundred yards' distance;
and belike, too, the latter were not treating them too well, but
seemed to be belabouring them with their spear-staves in their
anger at the poorness of the play; so that as Will Green said it
was like shooting at hay-ricks.
All this you must understand lasted but a few minutes, and when
our men had been shooting quite coolly, like good workmen at
peaceful work, for a few minutes more, the enemy's line seemed to
clear somewhat; the pennon with the three red kine showed in
front and three men armed from head to foot in gleaming steel,
except for their short coats bright with heraldry, were with it.
One of them (and he bore the three kine on his coat) turned round
and gave some word of command, and an angry shout went up
from them, and they came on steadily towards us, the man with the
red kine on his coat leading them, a great naked sword in his
hand: you must note that they were all on foot; but as they drew
nearer I saw their horses led by grooms and pages coming on
slowly behind them.
Sooth said Will Green that the men-at-arms run not fast either to
or fro the fray; they came on no faster than a hasty walk, their
arms clashing about them and the twang of the bows and whistle of
the arrows never failing all the while, but going on like the
push of the westerly gale, as from time to time the men-at-arms
shouted, "Ha! ha! out! out! Kentish thieves!"
But when they began to fall on, Jack Straw shouted out, "Bills to
the field! bills to the field!"
Then all our billmen ran up and leapt over the hedge into the
meadow and stood stoutly along the ditch under our bows, Jack
Straw in the forefront handling his great axe. Then he cast it
into his left hand, caught up his horn and winded it loudly. The
men-at-arms drew near steadily, some fell under the arrow-storm,
but not a many; for though the target was big, it was hard, since
not even the cloth-yard shaft could pierce well-wrought armour of
plate, and there was much armour among them. Withal the
arbalestiers were shooting again, but high and at a venture, so
they did us no hurt.
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