and others coming down the back stairs of the Inner
Temple Hall; that Hodges threatened the lord mayor if he would not take
down his sword, declaring that the Temple was excepted out of the city's
charter, that the sword was not the king's sword, but the lord mayor's,
and that "they were as good men as he, and no respect was to be given him
there." A struggle then took place for the possession of the sword, in
which the sword-bearer was slightly hurt and some of the pearls from the
scabbard were lost. The students made a snatch at the "cap of maintenance"
worn by the sword-bearer. The marshal's men who were in attendance
suffered some rough treatment, and narrowly escaped being put under the
pump. The mayor and aldermen in the meanwhile sought refuge in the
chambers of Mr. Auditor Phillips, and awaited the return of Sir John
Nicholas, who with the recorder and the sheriffs had been despatched to
Whitehall to report the matter to the king. As soon as they returned the
mayor and aldermen essayed to make their way out of the Temple, but were
again opposed by the students, with Hodges at their head. The scene was
one of wild excitement and confusion; blows were showered upon the
aldermen, and one of the sheriffs was seized by the collar in the frantic
attempts of the students to pull down the sword. The mayor and aldermen
were called "cuckolds," and their officers "dogs, rogues, rascals and
other very bad names." Some of the students are said to have had weapons
concealed under their gowns, and to have threatened to draw them. The
sheriffs, the recorder and Sir John Nicholas having again been sent to the
king, it was intimated to the mayor by some of the benchers, and by Mr.
Goodfellow, the Reader, at whose invitation the civic fathers were in the
Temple, that he might now leave without any interruption (the "young
gentlemen," according to Pepys, had been persuaded to go to dinner),
which, after some display of opposition, he was allowed to do. Such is the
City's own version of the affair, which concludes with the remark "that
the proceedings aforesaid were greatly affrontive and dishonourable to the
government of the city," a remark with which most people will be disposed
to agree. Nor is it surprising to find that two years later the mayor and
aldermen declined a similar invitation from Sir Francis North to attend
his "feast" at the Temple, more especially as another disturbance was
threatened if the sword should be borne up