“I am for the people, my lord,—with the King.”
“The people first!” sneered Thomas of Woodstock, the Earl of Buckingham. “A loyal servant, thou!”
“Doth not the King's self set the people first, afore the King?—May I do less, my Lord of Buckingham?”
“How are we tainted!” groaned Sudbury the Archbishop.
“Tainted, ay!” Stephen cried. “The laws are so rotten that they s-stink. The Statute of Labourers is a plague-spot, festering out of the Black Death. Oh, my lords, cut it out!”
“This is Wyclif! This is John Ball!” Sudbury mourned, his head in his hands.
“For the people?” questioned Salisbury anew; “that 's to mean the rebels,—and against nobilité?”
“Hear the word, my lord,” Stephen said, and never a stammer caught his tongue.
"'When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?'
“Against all men am I, merchants, noblesse, lords of manors, that do oppress their brothers, and hold to villeinage. This law of villeins is a dead law shall no longer be hanged about the necks of English peasants. We be free men. Lawbreakers, say ye?—Of a sureté we 'll break that law of villeins, smash and stamp it under foot, till 't is past mending. I am for the villeins,—and the King. I am sent a message to the King from his loyal people.”