About evening a council was held in the presence of the king, the barons who were in the Tower with him, Sir William Walworth the mayor, and some of the principal citizens, when it was proposed to arm themselves, and during the night to fall upon these wretches who were in the streets, and amounted to sixty thousand, while they were asleep and drunk, for then they might be killed like flies, and not one in twenty among them had arms. The citizens were very capable of doing this, for they had secretly received into their houses their friends and servants, properly prepared to act. Sir Robert Knolles remained in his house, guarding his property, with more than sixscore companions completely armed, and would have instantly sallied forth. Sir Perducas d’Albreth was also in London at that period, and would have been of great service; so that they could have mustered upward of eight thousand men, well armed. But nothing was done, for they were too much afraid of the commonalty of London; and the advisers of the king, the Earl of Salisbury and others, said to him, “Sir, if you can appease them by fair words, it will be so much the better, and good-humoredly grant them what they ask: for, should we begin what we cannot go through, we shall never be able to recover it: it will be all over with us and our heirs, and England will be a desert.” This counsel was followed, and the mayor ordered to make no movement. He obeyed, as in reason he ought. In the city of London, with the mayor, there are twelve sheriffs, of whom nine were for the king and three for these wicked people, as it was afterwards discovered, and for which they then paid dearly. On Friday morning those lodged in the square before St. Catherine’s, near the Tower, began to make themselves ready; they shouted much, and said, that, if the king would not come out to them, they would attack the Tower, storm it, and slay all in it. The king was alarmed at these menaces, and resolved to speak with them: he therefore sent orders for them to retire to a handsome meadow at Mile-end, where, in the summer, people go to amuse themselves, and that there the king would grant them their demands. Proclamation was made in the king’s name for all those who wished to speak with him to go to the above-mentioned place, where he would not fail to meet them.