“Thou art wilful,” said Kitte sternly. “Kneel down and pray that thou mayst never know the bitterness it is to drag down thy best beloved, that was born to mount higher than thou,—be he priest or knight.”
“My father would not be but a poor man, ever,‘ cried Calote. ’Bishops and great abbots they oppress the people and acquire lands”—
“Hold thy tongue and say thy prayers!” said Kitte, and shook her.
“How may I do both?” answered Calote.
“One learns,” Kitte made reply coldly. And Calote, her prayers said, went to her mother's bed and kissed her.
“Thou shouldst marry a prince the morrow morn, had I my way,” Kitte did murmur wistfully.
Nevertheless, on a day in late January, when Jack Straw said he would take Calote to see the Prince Richard and his train ride forth to Westminster, for Parliament was to be opened that day, Calote went with him gladly.
The old King was very sick in Kent; and John of Gaunt, to pleasure the people and so further his cause with them, had obtained that the Parliament be opened by the Prince. This was John of Gaunt's Parliament,—he had it packed; there was scarce a knight of any shire but was his creature. The town was full of lords and their retainers, of knights and burgesses.
'T was in a jostling crowd, and none too good-natured, that Calote and Jack Straw, Hobbe the smith, Peter from Devon, and Wat Tyler stood to see the heir pass. They were by Charing Cross, meaning to follow on to Westminster with the train when it came from the city. All about the people grumbled, and trod upon one another's toes. Prentices sang lewd songs and played vile pranks; anon the babel rose into a guffaw or lapsed to a snarl. Ploughman Peter squatted on the top step of the Cross, within a forest of legs, and slept. Hobbe gave entertainment to himself, and many beside, with mows and grins and gibberings out of the devil's part in the Miracle; yet he was mindful of Calote, and turned him to her now and again with:—
“Yon fellow 's of the household of Northumberland; dost mark his badge?”—or, “See, mistress! the black horse is one I shod yesterday; an ill-conditioned beast as ever champed bit;” and such-like information.