The same day that these wicked men of Kent were on their road toward London, the Princess of Wales, mother to the king, was returning from a pilgrimage to Canterbury. She ran great risks from them; for these scoundrels attacked her car, and caused much confusion, which greatly frightened the good lady lest they should do some violence to her or to her ladies. God, however, preserved her from this; and she came in one day from Canterbury to London without venturing to make any stop by the way. Her son Richard was this day in the Tower of London: thither the princess came, and found the king attended by the Earl of Salisbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Sir Robert de Namur, the Lord de Gommegines, and several more, who had kept near his person from suspicions of his subjects who were thus assembling without knowing what they wanted. This rebellion was well known to be in agitation in the king’s palace before it broke out, and the country people had left their homes, to which the king applied no remedy, to the great astonishment of every one. In order that gentlemen and others may take example, and correct wicked rebels, I will most amply detail how this business was conducted. CHAPTER IV. THE POPULACE OF ENGLAND COMMIT MANY CRUELTIES ON THOSE IN OFFICIAL SITUATIONS.--THEY SEND A KNIGHT AS AMBASSADOR TO THE KING. On Monday preceding the feast of the Holy Sacrament, in the year 1381, did these people sally forth from their homes, to come to London to remonstrate with the king, that all might be made free, for they would not there should be any slaves in England. At Canterbury they met John Ball (who thought he should find there the archbishop, but he was at London), Wat Tyler, and Jack Straw. On their entrance into Canterbury, they were much feasted by every one, for the inhabitants were of their way of thinking; and, having held a council, they resolved to march to London, and also to send emissaries across the Thames to Essex, Suffolk, Bedford, and other counties, to press the people to march to London on that side, and thus, as it were, to surround it, which the king would not be able to prevent. It was their intention that all the different parties should be collected together on the feast of the Holy Sacrament, or on the following day. On Corpus Christi Day, King Richard heard mass in the Tower of London, with all his lords, and afterwards entered his barge, attended by the Earls of Salisbury, Warwick, and Suffolk, with other knights. He rowed down the Thames toward Rotherhithe, a manor belonging to the crown, where were upward of ten thousand men, who had come from Blackheath to see the king and to speak to him. When they perceived his barge approach, they set up such shouts and cries as if all the devils in hell had been in their company.