It is said, too, that there was a certain man in London, a rich citizen, named Richard Lyon, who had formerly been Walter the Tiler's master, and had beaten him and otherwise treated him in a cruel and oppressive manner. At the time that he received these injuries Walter had no redress, but now the opportunity had come, he thought, for revenge. So he led a gang of the most desperate and reckless of the insurgents to Lyon's house, and, seizing their terrified victim, they dragged him out without mercy, and cut off his head. The head they stuck upon the top of a pike, and paraded it through the streets, a warning, as they said, to all cruel and oppressive masters. A great many other heads, principally those of men who had made themselves particularly obnoxious to the insurgents, were paraded through the streets in the same manner. After spending the day in these excesses, keeping all London in a state of dreadful confusion and alarm, the various bands began to move toward night in the direction of the Tower, where the king and his court had shut themselves up in great terror, not knowing what to do to escape from the dreadful inundation of poverty and misery which had so suddenly poured in upon them. The rioters, when they reached the Tower, took possession of a large open square before it, and, kindling up great bonfires, they began to make arrangements for bivouacking there for the night. CHAPTER X. THE END OF THE INSURRECTION. A.D. 1381 Anxiety and embarrassment of the king.--Consultations in the Tower.--Various counsels.--Mile-End.--A meeting appointed with the rioters at Mile-End.--The king meets the insurgents at Mile-End.--Parley with them.--The king accedes to their demands.--Effect of the concessions.--Preparation of the decrees.--Scenes in the night in and around London.--The next morning.--The king meets the insurgents at Smithfield.--Another parley.--Walter advances.--His orders to his men.--Doubt about the fairness of the accounts.--Conversation between Walter and the king.--Walter gets into a quarrel with the king's squire.--Walter is at last assaulted and killed.--Excitement among his men.--Courage and coolness of the king.--Alarm conveyed to London.--Troops brought to the ground.--The insurgents surrender their banners and disperse.--The king's interview with his mother.--Final results of the rebellion.