He accordingly went to Westminster, accompanied and escorted by a suitable cortége and guard. The mayor of the city of London was with the party. After hearing mass at Westminster, the king set out on his return home; but, instead of going back through the heart of London, as he had come, he took a circuit to the northward by a road which, as it happened, led through Smithfield, where a great body of the insurgents had assembled, as has already been said. Thus the king came upon them quite unexpectedly both to himself and to them. When he saw them, he halted, and the horsemen who were with him halted too. There were about sixty horsemen in his train.
Another parley.
Some of his officers thought it would be better to avoid a re-encounter with so large a body of the insurgents—for there were about twenty thousand on the field—and recommended that the king's party should turn aside, and go home another way; but the king said "No; he preferred to speak to them."
He would go, he said, and ascertain what it was that they wanted more. He thought that by a friendly colloquy with them he could appease them.
While the king and his party thus halted to consider what to do, the attention of the leaders of the insurgents had been directed toward them. They knew at once that it was the king.
Walter advances.
"It is the king," said Walter. "I am going to meet him and speak with him. All the rest of you are to remain here. You must not move from this spot until I come back, unless you see me make this signal."
So saying, Walter made a certain gesture with his hand, which was to be the signal for his men.
His orders to his men.