“Bah! a few old men butchered! Come, hear news!”
He dragged Wat to the far end of the long room where the fire burnt on the hearth. Jack Straw and John Ball joined them, and the rest of the men were for crowding up. Merlin flapped his long arms at them.
“Back! We want no gossips here.”
They shouted for the innkeeper.
“What has befallen old Pot Harry?”
“He has fled.”
“But left his cellar behind him! Down, brothers, down among the hogsheads.”
They crowded, shouting, into a narrow passage, leaving Merlin, Wat the Tiler, Jack Straw, and John Ball alone. Guy tramped to and fro, twisting his moustaches.
The voices by the fire grew angry and querulous.
“What! A stuffed King?”