"He who works only for to-day will starve to-morrow."
And Annys felt that he had won a helpful friend.
"When dost think the whole country will be ready?" asked Rugge of Annys.
"Plenty yet to do, plenty to do," was the reply. "There are counties
where they await but the word, but there are others where they are
none too ready to loose hand from the plough."
"Ay, those are the counties where the plough yet yields a living
somewhat better than a dog's."
"Yea, there are places in the land where the Black Death but took away
enough mouths to fill those that remain. There the men have a cold
heart and an unready ear, and it is hard enough to beat into them a
sense of fellowship for those who are suffering and a-hungering afar
off. It is slow work getting from east to west and from south to north,
yet the good work prospers surely. Steadily the people are coming to
right knowledge. More and more Holy Writ is being placed into their
hands, and it taketh but small wit to see there is something awry with
a world which matcheth so ill with its Word."
"Ay!" cried one lustily, "did the world go by the Book, there would be
no woe and unruth."
"Yes," spoke up Richard Meryl, "but the world goes not by the law of
Holy Writ, but by the law of Westminster, and therein lieth all the
unrest. Did they not seek to put man's law above God's law, there would
be no rebellion."
Annys nodded approvingly. There was something rarely winning in this
young man.
"Hast heard of the new law which the Commons have passed?" asked
Thomas Pye the wagon-maker of young Meryl.
"Let them pass their laws at Westminster," exclaimed one man,
passionately, "and let's see how well they can cultivate their lands
with parchment rolls."
"What have they done now?" asked Meryl.
"They have declared that 'carters, ploughmen, plough drivers,
shepherds, swineherds, deyes, and other servants should be content with
such liveries and wages as they received in the twentieth year of King
Edward's reign.'"
"'Declared that we be content,'" mocked Tim the needle-maker. "Have
they so, indeed!" Then rising, he addressed the others in a loud voice.
"Fellows, the law hath declared that we be content. Why then so we
must be--by Westminster law which can call the sky green if it take a
notion--it must be so."
"Content then," broke in Ralph Rugge, with a laugh, "is but a matter of
a drop of ink on the end of a quill."
"Next they will fill our empty stomachs with parchment sheets," uttered
one fellow, in strong disgust, whereat a great laugh went up because
the speaker, Richard Bole, was known for a great glutton.
"But that is not all," said the first speaker. "They will not that one
should depart from one part of the country to another to serve, or
reside elsewhere, or under pretence of going to a pilgrimage, without
a letter patent, specifying cause of his departure and time of his
return, granted at discretion of the justice of the peace."
"Yea," continued Ralph Rugge, taking the words out of the other's
mouth, "and if such a runaway be caught, he will be imprisoned for
fifteen days and branded on the forehead with the letter F; and any one
found harboring him would be liable to a fine of ten pounds."
"Curse their insolence!" muttered one whose face was flushed with
liquor and whose hands trembled with something other than indignation.
"Curse their insolence! Next they will seek to plant us in the soil
with a spade chained to our arms!"
"Yea, it is hard," spoke up Annys, with a sigh; "it is a bondage worse
than that of the Hebrews in Egypt; yet remain steadfast and patient,
and all must come right in the end."
At the other end of the table the men grew more and more under the
influence of the flowing ale.