"Right as some man gave me meat, And amid the floor set me, And had meat more than enough, But not so much worship As those that sitten at the side-table, Or with the sovereigns of the hall; But set as a beggar boardless, By myself on the ground. So it fareth by that felon That on Good Friday was saved, He sits neither with Saint John, Simon, nor Jude, Nor with maidens nor with martyrs, Confessors nor widows; But by himself as a sullen,[44] And served on earth. For he that is once a thief Is evermore in danger, And, as law him liketh, To live or to die. And for to serven a saint And such a thief together, It were neither reason nor right To reward them both alike." "Piers Plowman" is supposed to have been written in 1362. It became instantly popular, and manuscript copies were rapidly distributed over England. Imitations preserving the peculiar form, and aiming at the same objects as the "Vision," though without the genius exhibited in that work, appeared in quick succession. The hatred of the oppressed people for their oppressors was intensified by the inflammatory harangues of John Ball, the deposed priest. The preaching of Wycliffe probed still deeper the festering corruption of the dominant Church. At last, in 1381, a popular rising, under Wat Tyler, attempted to right the wrongs of generations at the sword's point. The result of that attempt is well known,--its temporary success, sudden overthrow, and the terrible revenge taken by the ruling power in the enactment of laws that made the burden of the people still more intolerable. But the seed of political and religious freedom had been sown. It had been watered with the blood of martyrs; and, although the tender shoots had been trodden down with an iron heel as soon as they appeared, they gathered additional strength and vigor from the repression, and soon sprang up with a vitality that defied all efforts to crush them. FOOTNOTES: [1] Garment. [2] Vagabond. [3] Clothes. [4] Shepherd. [5] Vision. [6] Brook. [7] Pigs. [8] A kind of very coarse cloth. [9] Buttoned. [10] Pushed. [11] Mud. [12] Worn out. [13] Oxen. [14] Meagre. [15] Kneading-trough. [16] Oat cake. [17] Children. [18] A lean hen. [19] Parley and leeks. [20] Cabbages. [21] Vagabonds. [22] Workingmen. [23] Market. [24] Piecemeal. [25] Belly. [26] Built. [27] Lands or tenements in towns. [28] Commanded. [29] Remain. [30] Unlearned. [31] Dressing. [32] Went. [33] Rob him. [34] Teach. [35] Take. [36] Afterwards. [37] Pedlers. [38] Boxes. [39] Thought. [40] Complaining. [41] Goods. [42] Earth. [43] Teachers. [44] One left alone. KATHARINE MORNE. PART I. CHAPTER I. One day, near the middle of a June about twenty years ago, my landlady met me at the door of my boarding-house, and began with me the following dialogue. "Miss Morne, my dear, home a'-ready? Goin' to be in, a spell, now?"