"And yet if there be any man here so base as to think that a small
matter, let him look to it that if these necks abide under the yoke,
Kent shall sweat for it ere it be long; and ye shall lose acre and
close and woodland, and be servants in your own houses, and your sons
shall be the lords' lads, and your daughters their lemans, and ye
shall buy a bold word with many stripes, and an honest deed with a
leap from the gallows-tree.
"Bethink ye, too, that ye have no longer to deal with Duke William,
who, if he were a thief and a cruel lord, was yet a prudent man and a
wise warrior; but cruel are these, and headstrong, yea, thieves and
fools in one--and ye shall lay their heads in the dust."
A shout would have arisen again, but his eager voice rising higher
yet, restrained it as he said:
"And how shall it be then when these are gone? What else shall ye
lack when ye lack masters? Ye shall not lack for the fields ye have
tilled, nor the houses ye have built, nor the cloth ye have woven; all
these shall be yours, and whatso ye will of all that the earth
beareth; then shall no man mow the deep grass for another, while his
own kine lack cow-meat; and he that soweth shall reap, and the reaper
shall eat in fellowship the harvest that in fellowship he hath won;
and he that buildeth a house shall dwell in it with those that he
biddeth of his free will; and the tithe barn shall garner the wheat
for all men to eat of when the seasons are untoward, and the
rain-drift hideth the sheaves in August; and all shall be without
money and without price.
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