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.

"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.

"When you see me make this signal," said he, "do you all rush forward
and kill every man in the troop except the king. You must not hurt the
king. We will take him and keep him. He is young, and we can make him
do whatever we say. We will put him at the head of our company, as if
he were our commander, and we were obeying his orders, and we will do
every thing in his name. In this way we can go wherever we please, all
over England, and do what we think best, and there will be no
opposition to us."

When I say that Walter gave these orders to his men, I mean that these
words were attributed to him by one of the historians of the time. As,
however, all the accounts which we have of these transactions were
written by persons who hated the insurgents, and wished to present
their case in the most unfavorable light possible, we can not depend
absolutely on the truth of their accounts, especially in cases like
this, when they could not have been present to hear or see.

At any rate, Walter rode up alone to meet the king. He advanced so
near to him that his horse's head touched the king's horse. While in
this position, a conversation ensued between him and the king. Walter
pointed to the vast concourse of men who were assembled in the field,
and told the king that they were all under his orders, and that what
he commanded them to do they would do. The king told him that if that
were the case, he would do well to recommend them all to go to their
respective homes. He had granted the petition, he said, which they had
offered the day before, and had ordered decrees to be prepared
emancipating them from their bondage. He asked Walter what more they
required.

Walter replied that they wanted the decrees to be delivered to _them_.

"We are not willing to depart till we get all the decrees," said he.
"There are all these men, and as many more besides in the city, and we
wish you to give us all the decrees, that we may