s would come to the bank of the river opposite Blackheath,
he would meet them there.

So Sir John Newton left the Tower, and, recrossing the river in his
boat, went back to the camp of the insurgents, and reported to the
leaders the answer of the king.

They were very much pleased to hear that the king was coming to meet
them. The news was soon communicated to all the host, and it gave
universal satisfaction. There were sixty thousand men on the ground,
it is said, and, of course, they were very insufficiently provided
with food, and not at all with shelter. They, however, began to make
arrangements to spend the night as well as they could where they were,
in anticipation of the interview with the king on the following day.

On the following morning the king attended mass in solemn state in the
chapel of the Tower, and then immediately afterward entered his barge,
accompanied by a grand train of officers, knights, and barons. The
barge, leaving the Tower stairs, was rowed down the river to the place
appointed for the interview. About ten thousand of the insurgents had
come to the spot, and when they saw the barge coming in sight with the
royal party on board, they burst out into such a terrific uproar, with
yells, screams, shouts, outcries, and frantic gesticulations, that
they seemed to the king and his party like a company of demons. They
had Sir John Newton with them. They had brought him down to the bank
of the river, because, as they said, if the king were not to come,
they should believe that he had imposed upon them in the message which
he had brought, and in that case they were going to cut him to pieces
on the spot.

The assembly seemed so noisy and furious that the nobles in
attendance on the king were afraid to allow him to land. They advised
him to remain in the barge, at a little distance from the shore, and
to address the people from the deck. The king resolved to do so. So
the barge lay floating on the river, the oarsmen taking a few strokes
from time to time to recover the ground lost by the drift of the
current. The king stood upon the deck of the barge, with his officers
around him, and asked the men on the shore what they wished for.

"I have come at your request," said he, "to hear what you have to
say."[H]

[Footnote H: See Frontispiece.]

Such an arrangement as this for communicating with a mass of desperate
and furious men would not have been safe under circumstances similar
to those of t