The Londoners, who not only abstained from opposing the new demand for money, but volunteered a loan to the king (15 Nov.) of £4,000,(988) lost no time in putting their city into a state of defence. Six aldermen and a number of representatives from the livery companies were deputed to attend to the city’s ordnance.(989) The mayor was to be allowed twelve armed men in addition to his usual suite, and the sheriffs forty sergeants and forty valets in order to assist them in keeping the peace within the city. Communication was to be kept up at least once in the day between the mayor and the Lord Chancellor. Houses which had been set up on the city’s walls, or within sixteen feet of them, were to be abated. John Stokker, who filled the not unworthy office of Common Hunt,(990) was ordered daily to ride out to learn the king’s pleasure and report thereon to the mayor and aldermen. Among those appointed to guard the city’s gates and Temple Bar was Alderman Fabyan, the chronicler.(991) The state of anxiety which prevailed in the city at this crisis is illustrated by "Jesus Mercy" at the head of one side of the page of the City’s record, on which the above orders are entered, whilst on the other side are the words _vigilie temporis turbacionis_.(992) (M534) (M535) (M536) (M537) By the 22nd June, 1497, all immediate danger had passed, the rebels being on that day utterly defeated at Blackheath. Their leaders were taken and executed; the rest were for the most part made prisoners, but were soon afterwards dismissed without further punishment. The leniency displayed towards them by Henry was ill-repaid by their afterwards flocking to the standard of the _soi-disant_ Richard IV, King of England, who availed himself of their mutinous disposition and appeared in their midst at Bodmin. The news of Perkin Warbeck having arrived in Cornwall from Ireland was brought to the mayor and aldermen of the City of London by letter from the king, which was read to the Common Council on Saturday, the 16th September.(993) The rebels made an unsuccesful attempt to get possession of Exeter, but hearing of the approach of the king’s forces, Perkin Warbeck withdrew to Taunton, leaving his followers to take care of themselves. From Taunton he went to "Mynet" (Minehead) accompanied by less than sixty adherents,(994) and by the 12th October the king was able to inform the Mayor that Peter "Warboys" had voluntarily submitted himself and had confessed to his being a native of Tournay.(995) The king had him conveyed to London and paraded through the streets on horseback, in a species of mock triumph, and caused his confession to be printed and scattered over the country that people might see the real character of the man. For a time he appears to have been detained in lax custody about the court, but after he had made an attempt to escape and reach the sea-coast, and been re-captured, he was sent to the Tower. There he got into