A MARCH ON LONDON

I. TROUBLED TIMES

II. A FENCING BOUT

III. WAT TYLER

IV. IN LONDON

V. A RESCUE

VI. A CITY MERCHANT

VII. DEATH TO THE FLEMINGS!

VIII. A COMBAT IN THE TOWER

IX. DEATH OF THE TYLER

X. A FIGHT IN THE OPEN

XI. AN INVITATION

XII. THE TROUBLES IN FLANDERS

XIII. A STARVING TOWN

XIV. CIVIL WAR

XV. A CRUSHING DEFEAT

XVI. A WAR OF THE CHURCH

XVII. PRISONERS

XVIII. A NOBLE GIFT

XIX. WELL SETTLED

CHAPTER I

TROUBLED TIMES

"And what do you think of it all, good Father?"

"'Tis a difficult question, my son, and I am glad that it is one that
wiser heads than mine will have to solve."

"But they don't seem to try to solve it; things get worse and worse. The
king is but a lad, no older than myself, and he is in the hands of others.
It seems to me a sin and a shame that things should go on as they are at
present. My father also thinks so."

The speaker was a boy of some sixteen years old. He was walking with the
prior in the garden of the little convent of St. Alwyth, four miles from
the town of Dartford. Edgar Ormskirk was the son of a scholar. The latter,
a man of independent means, who had always had a preference for study and
investigation rather than for taking part in active pursuits, had, since
the death of his young wife, a year after the birth of his son, retired
altogether from the world and devoted himself to study. He had given up
his comfortable home, standing on the heights of Highgate--that being in
too close proximity to London to enable him to enjoy the seclusion that he
desired--and had retired to a small estate near Dartford.

Educated at Oxford, he had gone to Padua at his father's death, which
happened just as he left the university, and had remained at that seat of
learning for five years. There he had spent the whole of his income in the
purchase of manuscripts. The next two years were passed at Bologna and
Pisa, and he there collected a library such as few gentlemen of his time
possessed. Then Mr. Ormskirk had returned to England and settled at
Highgate, and two years later married the daughter of a neighbouring
gentleman, choosing her rather because he felt that he needed someone to
keep his house in order, than from any of the feeling that usually
accompanies such unions. In time, however, he had come to love her, and
her loss was a very heavy blow to him. It was the void that he felt in his
home as much as his desire for solitude, that induced him to leave
Highgate and settle in the country.

A MARCH ON LONDON