Sometimes he caught the eye of one or other, and then that kindly
smile spread over his face, but faded off it into the sternness and
sadness of a man who has heavy and great thoughts hanging about him.
But when John Ball first mounted the steps of the cross a lad at some
one's bidding had run off to stop the ringers, and so presently the
voice of the bells fell dead, leaving on men's minds that sense of
blankness or even disappointment which is always caused by the sudden
stopping of a sound one has got used to and found pleasant. But a
great expectation had fallen by now on all that throng, and no word
was spoken even in a whisper, and all men's hearts and eyes were fixed
upon the dark figure standing straight up now by the tall white shaft
of the cross, his hands stretched out before him, one palm laid upon
the other.
And for me, as I made ready to hearken, I felt a joy in my soul that I
had never yet felt.
CHAPTER IV
THE VOICE OF JOHN BALL
SO now I heard John Ball; how he lifted up his voice and said:
"Ho, all ye good people! I am a priest of God, and in my day's work
it cometh that I should tell you what ye should do, and what ye should
forbear doing, and to that end I am come hither: yet first, if I
myself have wronged any man here, let him say wherein my wrongdoing
lieth, that I may ask his pardon and his pity.
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