he morning he
mounted his horse, and with a small group of attendants rode toward
the Tower. As he passed through the open square of Smithfield he met
Wat Tyler, also on horseback, accompanied by the great body of rebels.
Tyler rode forward to confer with the king, but an altercation having
broken out between him and some of the king's attendants, the mayor of
London, Sir William Walworth, suddenly dashed forward, struck him from
his horse with the blow of a sword, and while on the ground he was
stabbed to death by the other attendants of the king. There was a
moment of extreme danger of an attack by the leaderless rebels on the
king and his companions, but the ready promises of the king, his
natural gifts of pretence, and the strange attachment which the
peasants showed to him through all the troubles, tided over a little
time until they had been led outside of the city gates, and the armed
forces which many gentlemen had in their houses in the city had at
last been gathered together and brought to where they had the
disorganized body of rebels at their mercy. These were then disarmed,
bidden to go to their homes, and a proclamation issued that if any
stranger remained in London over Sunday he would pay for it with his
life.

The downfall of Tyler and the dispersion of the insurgents at London
turned the tide of the whole revolt. In the various districts where
disorders were in progress the news of that failure came as a blow to
all their own hopes of success. The revolt had been already
disintegrating rather than gaining in strength and unity; and now its
leaders lost heart, and local bodies of gentry proportionately took
courage to suppress revolt in their own localities. The most
conspicuous and influential of such efforts was that of Henry de
Spencer, bishop of Norwich. This warlike prelate was in Rutlandshire
when the news of the revolt came. He hastened toward Norwich; on his
way met an embassy from the rioters to the king; seized and beheaded
two of its peasant members, and still pushing on met the great body of
the rebels near Walsham, where after a short conflict and some
parleying the latter were dispersed, and their leaders captured and
hung without any ceremony other than the last rites of religion. As a
matter of fact the rising had no cohesion sufficient to withstand
attack from any constituted authority or from representatives of the
dominant classes.

The king's government acted promptly. On the 17th