_Brewers to the Cucking-Stools._--... And if any brewer hath brewed and broken the assize of our Lord the King, allowed and publicly proclaimed in the said city, she ought by the bailiff to be amerced the first and the second time; and if she break the assize the third time, she ought to be taken by the bailiff and to be led to the judgement which is called the Gongestole.... _Scolds._--Also it was agreed upon concerning scolding women, that by them many evils do arise in the city viz. by wrangling, fighting, defaming, troubling by night those which are at rest, and often times moving schisms between their neighbours, and by contradicting the bailiff and ministers and others; and in their prison, by speaking ill or cursing them,... wherefore, at all times when they shall be taken and convicted, they shall have their judgement, without any redemption to be made; and there they shall stand, with their feet bare, and their hair hanging about their ears, by so much time as they may be seen of all those which pass by that way ... and afterwards, the judgement being finished, let her (the scold) be brought to the gaol of our Lord the King, and there stay until she hath made redemption at the will of the bailiff. And if she will not be amended by such punishment, let her be cast out of the city. THE EXECUTION OF SIR JOHN OLDCASTLE (1417). =Source.=--_Brief Chronicle of Sir John Oldcastle._ ("Harleian Miscellany," vol. ii., pp. 276, 277.) And upon the day appointed he was brought out of the Tower with his arms bound behind him, having a very cheerful countenance. Then was he laid upon an hurdle, as though he had been a most heinous traitor to the Crown, and so drawn forth into Saint Giles Field, where they had set up a new pair of gallows. As he was come to the place of execution, and was taken from the hurdle, he fell down devoutly on his knees, desiring Almighty God to forgive his enemies. Then stood he up and beheld the multitude, exhorting them, in most goodly manner, to follow the laws of God written in the Scriptures and in any wise to beware of such teachers as they see contrary to Christ in their conversation and living; with many other special counsels. Then was he hanged up there by the middle in chains of iron, and so consumed alive in the fire; praising the name of God so long as his life lasted. In the end he commended his soul into the hands of God, and so departed hence most christianly, his body resolved into ashes. THE SIEGE OF ROUEN (1418). =Source.=--John Page's "Poem on the Siege of Rouen" in the _Collections of a London Citizen_. (Camden Society.) +The Sufferings of the Inhabitants.+ Meat and drink and other victual In that city began to fail. Save clean water they had enow, And vinegar to put thereto, Their bread was full nigh gone And flesh, save horse, had they none. They ate dogs, and they ate cats They ate mice, horses and rats. * * * * *