"Yet at least I hope that there
may be fewer and fewer folk in the land; as may well be, if life is
then so foul and wretched."
"Alas, poor man!" I said; "nor mayst thou imagine how foul and
wretched it may be for many of the folk; and yet I tell thee that men
shall increase and multiply, till where there is one man in the land
now, there shall be twenty in those days--yea, in some places ten
times twenty."
"I have but little heart to ask thee more questions," said he; "and
when thou answerest, thy words are plain, but the things they tell of
I may scarce understand. But tell me this: in those days will men
deem that so it must be for ever, as great men even now tell us of our
ills, or will they think of some remedy?"
I looked about me. There was but a glimmer of light in the church
now, but what there was, was no longer the strange light of the moon,
but the first coming of the kindly day.
"Yea," said John Ball, "'tis the twilight of the dawn. God and St.
Christopher send us a good day!"
"John Ball," said I, "I have told thee that thy death will bring about
that which thy life has striven for: thinkest thou that the thing
which thou strivest for is worth the labour? or dost thou believe in
the tale I have told thee of the days to come?"
He said: "I tell thee once again that I trust thee for a seer;
because no man could make up such a tale as thou; the things which
thou tellest are too wonderful for a minstrel, the tale too grievous.
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