And now the wrathful rabble rave, And quick returne withe club and
stave; And heades righte learn'd in classic lore Felt as they'd never
felt before. Now fierce and bloody growes the fraye: In vaine the mayore
and sheriffe praye For peace--to cool the townsmens' ire, Intreatie but
impelles the fire. Downe with the Towne! the scholairs cry; Downe with
the Gowne! the towne reply. Loud rattle the caps of the clerkes in aire,
And the citizens many a sortie beare; And many a churchman fought his
waye, Like a heroe in the bloodie fraye. And one right portlie father
slewe Of rabble townsmen not a fewe. And now 'mid the battle's strife
and din There came to the Easterne gate, The heralde of our lorde
the kinge, With his merrie men all in state. "God help us!" quoth the
courtlie childe, "What means this noise within? With joye the people
have run wilde." And so he peeped him in, And throughe the wicker-gate
he spied, And marvelled much thereat, The streets withe crimson current
dyed, And Towne and Gowne laide flat. Then he called his merrie men
aloud, To bringe him a ladder straighte; The trumpet sounds--the warlike
crowde In a moment forget theire hate. Up rise the wounded, down theire
arms Both Towne and Gowne do lie; The kinge's approache ye people
charmes, And alle looke merrilie. For howe'er Towne and Gowne may
fighte, Yet bothe are true to ye kinge. So on bothe may learning and
honour lighte, Let all men gailie singe.{1}

~265~~

1 The above imitation of the style of the ancient ballad is
founded on traditional circumstances said to have occurred
when the pacific king James visited Oxford.--_Bernard
Blackmantle_.

_Intestine broils and civil wars of Oxford_.--Anthony Wood,
the faithful historian of Oxford, gives an account of a
quarrel between the partisans of St. Guinbald and the
residents of Oxford, in the days of Alfred, on his
refounding the university, A.D. 886. After his death the
continual inroads of the Danes kept the Oxonians in
perpetual alarm, and in the year 979 they destroyed the town
by fire, and repeated their outrage upon the new built town
in 1002. Seven years after, Swein, the Danish leader, was
repulsed by the inhabitants in a similar attempt, who took
vengeance on their im-placable enemy by a general massacre
on the feast of St. Brice. In the civil commotions under the
Saxon prince, Oxford had again its full sha