lecting the taxes, the farmers would not pay so
much the next time.

Richard himself, of course, knew nothing about all these things, or,
if he did know of them, he was wholly unable to do any thing to
prevent them. He was completely in the power of his uncles, and of the
other great nobles of the time. The public discontent, however, grew
at last so great that there was nothing wanted but a spark to cause it
to break out into a flame. There was such a spark furnished at length
by an atrocious insult and injury offered to a young girl, the
daughter of a tiler, by one of the tax-gatherers. This led to a
formidable insurrection, known in history as Wat Tyler's insurrection.
I shall relate the story of this insurrection in the next chapter.

CHAPTER IX.

WAT TYLER'S INSURRECTION.

A.D. 1381

Real name of Wat Tyler.--State of the country.--Names of Walter's
confederates.--Character of these men.--Condition of the lower
classes at this time.--Ball's proposal.--Other orators.--Their
discourses.--Mixture of truth and error in their
complaints.--Necessary inequality among men.--The true doctrine of
equality.--Origin of Wat Tyler's insurrection.--The tax-gatherer in
Walter's family.--Intolerable outrage.--The tax-gatherer killed.--Plan
of the insurgents to march to London.--Re-enforcements by the
way.--Oaths administered.--The Archbishop of Canterbury.--Case of
Sir John Newton.--Sir John Newton is sent as an embassador to the
king.--Interview between Sir John and the king at the Tower.--Sir
John returns to the insurgents.--The king goes down to meet the
insurgents.--Scene on the bank of the river.--Parley with the
insurgents.--The king retires.--The insurgents resolve to go into
London.--The bridge.--Excitement in the city.--The gates opened.--The
insurgents occupy the streets of London.--Destruction of the Duke of
Lancaster's palace.--Destruction of the Temple.--Assassination of
Richard Lyon.--Excesses of the mob.--They bivouac near the Tower.

The insurrection to which a large portion of the people of England
were driven by the cruel tyranny and oppression which they suffered in
the early part of King Richard's reign is commonly called Wat Tyler's
insurrection, as if the affair with Wat Tyler were the cause and
moving spring of it, whereas it was, in fact, only an incident of it.

The real name of this unhappy man was John Walter. He was a tiler by
trade--that is, his business was to lay tiles for the roofs of