A Dream of John Ball

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As for the peasants, great was their fear of those gay and golden
lords. I judge that they did not know the King, since it was
little likely that any one of them had seen his face; and they
knew of him but as the Great Father, the mighty warrior who kept
the Turk from harrying their thorpe. Though, forsooth, little
matter was it to any man there whether Turk or Magyar was their
over-lord, since to one master or another they had to pay the due
tale of labouring days in the year, and hard was the livelihood
that they earned for themselves on the days when they worked for
themselves and their wives and children.

Well, belike they knew not the King; but amidst those rich lords
they saw and knew their own lord, and of him they were sore
afraid. But nought it availed them to flee away from those
strong men and strong horses--they who had been toiling from
before the rising of the sun, and now it wanted little more than
an hour of noon: besides, with the King and lords was a guard of
crossbowmen, who were left the other side of the vineyard
wall,--keen-eyed Italians of the mountains, straight
shooters of the bolt. So the poor folk fled not; nay they made
as if all this were none of their business, and went on with
their work. For indeed each man said to himself, "If I be the
one that is not slain, to-morrow I shall lack bread if I do not
work my hardest to-day; and maybe I shall be headman if some of
these be slain and I live."

Now comes the King amongst them and says: "Good fellows, which
of you is the headman?"

Spake a man, sturdy and sunburnt, well on in years and grizzled:
"I am the headman, lord."

"Give me thy hoe, then," says the King; "for now shall I order
this matter myself, since these lords desire a new game, and are
fain to work under me at vine-dressing. But do thou stand by me
and set me right if I order them wrong: but the rest of you go
play!"

The carle knew not what to think, and let the King stand with his
hand stretched out, while he looked askance at his own lord and
baron, who wagged his head at him grimly as one who says,
"Do it, dog!"

Then the carle lets the hoe come into the King's hand; and the
King falls to, and orders his lords for vine-dressing, to each
his due share of the work: and whiles the carle said yea and
whiles nay to his ordering. And then ye should have seen velvet
cloaks cast off, and mantles of fine Flemish scarlet go to the
dusty earth; as the lords and knights busked them to the work.

So they buckled to; and to most of them it seemed good game to
play at vine-dressing. But one there was who, when his scarlet
cloak was off, stood up in a doublet of glorious Persian web of
gold and silk, such as men make not now, worth a hundred florins
the Bremen ell. Unto him the King with no smile on his face gave
the job of toing and froing up and down the hill with the biggest
and the frailest dung-basket that there was; and thereat the
silken lord screwed up a grin, that was sport to see, and all the
lords laughed; and as he turned away he said, yet so that
none heard him, "Do I serve this son's son of a whore that he
should bid me carry dung?" For you must know that the King's
father, John Hunyad, one of the great warriors of the world, the
Hammer of the Turks, was not gotten in wedlock, though he were a
king's son.

Well, they sped the work bravely for a while, and loud was the
laughter as the hoes smote the earth and the flint stones tinkled
and the cloud of dust rose up; the brocaded dung-bearer went up
and down, cursing and swearing by the White God and the Black;
and one would say to another, "See ye how gentle blood outgoes
churls' blood, even when the gentle does the churl's work: these
lazy loons smote but one stroke to our three." But the King, who
worked no worse than any, laughed not at all; and meanwhile the
poor folk stood by, not daring to speak a word one to the other;
for they were still sore afraid, not now of being slain on the
spot, but this rather was in their hearts: "These great and
strong lords and knights have come to see what work a man may do
without dying: if we are to have yet more days added to our
year's tale of lords' labour, then are we lost without remedy."
And their hearts sank within them.

So sped the work; and the sun rose yet higher in the heavens, and
it was noon and more. And now there was no more laughter among
those toiling lords, and the strokes of the hoe and mattock came
far slower, while the dung-bearer sat down at the bottom of the
hill and looked out on the river; but the King yet worked on
doggedly, so for shame the other lords yet kept at it. Till at
last the next man to the King let his hoe drop with a clatter,
and swore a great oath. Now he was a strong black-bearded man in
the prime of life, a valiant captain of that famous Black Band
that had so often rent the Turkish array; and the King loved him
for his sturdy valour; so he says to him, "Is aught wrong,
Captain?"

"Nay, lord," says he, "ask the headman carle yonder what ails
us."

"Headman," says the King, "what ails these strong knights? Have
I ordered them wrongly?"

"Nay, but shirking ails them, lord," says he, "for they are
weary; and no wonder, for they have been playing hard, and are of
gentle blood."

"Is that so, lord," says the King, "that ye are weary already?"

Then the rest hung their heads and said nought, all save that
captain of war; and he said, being a bold man and no liar:
"King, I see what thou wouldst be at; thou hast brought us here
to preach us a sermon from that Plato of thine; and to say sooth,
so that I may swink no more, and go eat my dinner, now preach thy
worst! Nay, if thou wilt be priest I will be thy deacon. Wilt
thou that I ask this labouring carle a thing or two?"

"Yea," said the King. And there came, as it were, a cloud of
thought over his face.

Then the captain straddled his legs and looked big, and said
to the carle: "Good fellow, how long have we been working here?"

"Two hours or thereabout, judging by the sun above us," says he.

"And how much of thy work have we done in that while?" says the
captain, and winks his eye at him withal.

"Lord," says the carle, grinning a little despite himself, "be
not wroth with my word. In the first half-hour ye did five-and-
forty minutes' work of ours, and in the next half-hour scant a
thirty minutes' work, and the third half-hour a fifteen minutes'
work, and in the fourth half-hour two minutes' work." The grin
now had faded from his face, but a gleam came into his eyes as he
said: "And now, as I suppose, your day's work is done, and ye
will go to your dinner, and eat the sweet and drink the strong;
and we shall eat a little rye-bread, and then be working here
till after the sun has set and the moon has begun to cast
shadows. Now for you, I wot not how ye shall sleep nor
where, nor what white body ye shall hold in your arms while the
night flits and the stars shine; but for us, while the stars yet
shine, shall we be at it again, and bethink ye for what! I know
not what game and play ye shall be devising for to-morrow as ye
ride back home; but for us when we come back here to-morrow, it
shall be as if there had been no yesterday and nothing done
therein, and that work of that to-day shall be nought to us also,
for we shall win no respite from our toil thereby, and the morrow
of to-morrow will all be to begin again once more, and so on and
on till no to-morrow abideth us. Therefore, if ye are thinking
to lay some new tax or tale upon us, think twice of it, for we
may not bear it. And all this I say with the less fear, because
I perceive this man here beside me, in the black velvet jerkin
and the gold chain on his neck, is the King; nor do I think he
will slay me for my word since he hath so many a Turk before him
and his mighty sword!"

Then said the captain: "Shall I smite the man, O King? or hath
he preached thy sermon for thee?"

"Smite not, for he hath preached it," said the King. "Hearken to
the carle's sermon, lords and councillors of mine! Yet when
another hath spoken our thought, other thoughts are born
therefrom, and now have I another sermon to preach; but I will
refrain me as now. Let us down and to our dinner."

So they went, the King and his gentles, and sat down by the river
under the rustle of the poplars, and they ate and drank and were
merry. And the King bade bear up the broken meats to the vine-
dressers, and a good draught of the archer's wine, and to the
headman he gave a broad gold piece, and to each man three silver
pennies. But when the poor folk had all that under their hands,
it was to them as though the kingdom of heaven had come down to
earth.

In the cool of the evening home rode the King and his lords. The
King was distraught and silent; but at last the captain, who
rode beside him, said to him: "Preach me now thine after-sermon,
O King!"

"I think thou knowest it already," said the King, "else hadst
thou not spoken in such wise to the carle; but tell me what is
thy craft and the craft of all these, whereby ye live, as the
potter by making pots, and so forth?"

Said the captain: "As the potter lives by making pots, so we
live by robbing the poor."

Again said the King: "And my trade?"

Said he, "Thy trade is to be a king of such thieves, yet no
worser than the rest."

The King laughed.

"Bear that in mind," said he, "and then shall I tell thee my
thought while yonder carle spake. `Carle,' I thought, `were I
thou or such as thou, then would I take in my hand a sword or a
spear, or were it only a hedge-stake, and bid others do the like,
and forth would we go; and since we would be so many, and with
nought to lose save a miserable life, we would do battle and
prevail, and make an end of the craft of kings and of lords
and of usurers, and there should be but one craft in the world,
to wit, to work merrily for ourselves and to live merrily
thereby.'"

Said the captain: "This then is thy sermon. Who will heed it if
thou preach it?"

Said the King: "They who will take the mad king and put him in a
king's madhouse, therefore do I forbear to preach it. Yet it
SHALL be preached."

"And not heeded," said the captain, "save by those who head and
hang the setters forth of new things that are good for the world.

Our trade is safe for many an many a generation."

And therewith they came to the King's palace, and they ate and
drank and slept and the world went on its ways.

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