The commonalty of the different villages began to march thither; but all did not go, nor had they the same objects in view, for the greater part only wished for the riches and destruction of the nobles, and the plunder of London. This was the principal cause of their rebellion, as they very clearly showed; for when the gates of the Tower were thrown open, and the king, attended by his two brothers, the Earls of Salisbury, of Warwick, of Suffolk, Sir Robert de Namur, the Lords de Vertain and de Gommegines, with several others, had passed through them, Wat Tyler, Jack Straw, and John Ball, with upward of four hundred, rushed in by force, and, running from chamber to chamber, found the Archbishop of Canterbury, whose name was Simon, a valiant and wise man, and chancellor of England, who had but just celebrated mass before the king: he was seized by these rascals, and beheaded. The Prior of St. John’s suffered the same fate; and likewise a Franciscan friar, a doctor of physic, who was attached to the Duke of Lancaster, out of spite to his master; and also a sergeant at arms of the name of John Laige. They fixed these four heads on long pikes, and had them carried before them through the streets of London: when they had sufficiently played with them, they placed them on London Bridge, as if they had been traitors to their king and country. These scoundrels entered the apartment of the princess, and cut her bed; which so much terrified her, that she fainted, and in this condition was by her servants and ladies carried to the river-side, when she was put into a covered boat, and conveyed to the house called the Wardrobe, where she continued that day and night like to a woman half dead, until she was comforted by the king her son, as you shall presently hear. CHAPTER V. THE NOBLES OF ENGLAND ARE IN GREAT DANGER OF BEING DESTROYED--THREE OF THE PRINCIPAL LEADERS OF THE REBELS ARE PUNISHED, AND THE REST SENT BACK TO THEIR HOMES. When the king was on his way to the place called Mile-end, without London, his two brothers, the Earl of Kent, and Sir John Holland, stole off and galloped from his company, as did also the Lord de Gommegines, not daring to show themselves to the populace at Mile-end for fear of their lives.