In this rising of the commons were many great men of the land in many places beheaded. The Savoy, the palace of the Duke of Lancaster and the fairest in the kingdom, standing near London, on the bank of Thames, was, from the commons' hatred of the duke, utterly destroyed by them with fire; and the duke himself, for fear of them, fled into Scotland. To appease them and to quiet their fury, the King granted that the state of villeinage, as well in their persons as in their labour, should be henceforth done away, freedom fully given, and all prisoners set at large. And this he commanded and made to be openly proclaimed throughout the counties of the kingdom. And then what a throe of grief passed through the desolated land! For they boasted that they would slay all those of higher birth, would raise up King and lords from among themselves, would stablish new laws, and, in a word, would make new, or rather disfigure, the face and estate of the whole island. Then every man struck off the head of his enemy, and despoiled his richer neighbour. But, by the mercy of God, when their leader, being in Smithfield near London, doffed not his hood before the King nor in anything did reverence to the King's Majesty, his head was deftly struck off, in the very midst of his flock of kites, by Sir William Walworth, knight and citizen of London: and straightway, being raised on the point of a sword, it was shown before them. Then the commons, in sore dread, sought flight by stealth, and there and then casting away their rebellious weapons, as though unguilty of such riot and wickedness, like foxes into their holes, they pitifully crept home. But the King and the lords pursued them, and some they made to be dragged behind horses, some they slew with the sword, some they hanged on the gallows, some they quartered; and they destroyed thousands. WONDROUS AND UNHEARD-OF PRODIGIES (1381). SOURCE.--H.T. Riley's _Memorials of London_ (London, 1868), 449-451. Among the most wondrous and hitherto unheard-of prodigies that have ever happened in the City of London, that which took place there on the Feast of Corpus Christi, the 18th day of June, in the 4th year of the reign of King Richard the Second, seems deserving to be committed to writing, that it may be not unknown to those to come.