“He is best left where he is.” “Better still in his mother’s bed. He is the greatest peril we have to fear.” “If these rebels can but get him into their hands they will make him hop as they please.” “It would be giving them our heads. Now—this bastard!” They returned to the Council Chamber, where some of the younger men were standing at the windows looking down at the bonfires and listening to the shouts of the crowd. Salisbury drew Knollys aside before the Council gathered about the board. “Your fellow must serve. They shall change caps to-night. I have planned what to say to these gentlemen.” They came together round the great table, and the King’s half-brothers and some of the hot-heads were for a night attack. They talked of arming every man they could muster, opening the gates, and sallying out to attack the mob. The peasants were drunk and fuddled, and could be slaughtered like sheep in the shambles. Salisbury put their desperate measures aside with the wise air of a sage captain. “Sirs, we have spoken with the King. He has taken heart of grace, and swears that to-morrow he will speak to these people as their King. Brave words will win more from them than blows.” They were for arguing the point. “What, treat with these clowns?” “Let the King go into the midst of them!” “They’ll not stand against gentlemen and men of metal. The whole pack is drunk.” It was Walworth who smothered their adventurous truculence. He had his spies in the crowd. Two of them had been let in at the water-gate, and he had spoken with them after leaving the King’s chamber. “Sir, a few thousand tipplers do not make up the whole mob. Do you think that the men who have raised this storm against us are mere sots and fools? I tell you I know the truth, and how matters lie out yonder. The Tiler and his comrades have thousands of fellows ready in the streets, men who are too savage against us to throw away their chances for a pot of ale. All the pother down yonder is so much froth. Those who are sober are on the watch, and would thank us were we to open the gates and fight with them, one man against ten, and in the dark. I tell you they would ask for no easier way of putting your heads upon their pikes.” The hot-heads were less ready to put on their harness when they had heard what Walworth had to promise them. The Council broke up, and the two earls, the archbishop, and the Lord Mayor passed straight to the chamber of the Princess, the King’s mother. Though it was past midnight they found her up and dressed, and walking restlessly to and fro between her state bed and the window. She was alone, having just returned from the King’s chamber, and her face looked white and hard. She turned on them sharply, and spoke as though she were in a fierce haste to have some shameful truth confessed. “Gentlemen, since our case is so desperate, it must be as you please. I have spoken with the King.” They saw her wince and stiffen her neck and body.