“Sire!” he said, and his voice was heard so far that the muttering and the swaying ceased,—“sire, we ask three gifts of thy grace; and the first gift is to be free men. No longer villeins and serfs, but free; no longer bound to the soil, but free to go and come, to marry our daughters to whom we will, to grind our corn at our own mill,—to be free! The High God, Emperor of heaven, when he set our father Adam upon this earth, who was this man's master?”
Richard turned his head to look on the Earl of Salisbury:—
“Thy will is our will, sire,” said the old man.
And immediately the King stood up in his stirrups, and:—
“Yea,—we will set each other free,” he cried. “Lo, I strike off your fetters, and I too am free!”
For a space of a minute there was silence, awe; and then the cry, hoarse, shaken twixt wonder and terror. Then silence came again, white-lipped, and there were a-many fainted in their brothers' arms. And that was a long silence.
“Speak!” said Richard huskily to Long Will. “Here 's one grace granted,—name other two.”
“That we may pay a rent henceforth for the land whereto we were bound aforetime. We are not thieves, neither would we be lollers,—we be honest men desirous to till the land. Four pence the acre is the rate we would pay.”
“Ay, ay, four pence!” cried a score of men.
“'T is folly!” whispered Thomas of Woodstock and the Earl of Warwick angrily. “'T cannot be done! Fools!—So paltry price is ruinous!”