had addressed the mayor, saying, 'Hey, in God's name, what have I said? Does it concern thee? What dost thou mean?' 'Truly,' replied the mayor, who found himself supported by the king, 'does it become such a stinking rascal as thou art to use such speech in the presence of the king, my natural lord? I will not live a day, if thou pay not for it.' Upon this he drew a kind of scymitar* he wore, and struck Tyler such a blow on the head as felled him to his horse's feet. When he was down he was surrounded on all sides, so that his men could not see him, and one of the king's squires, named John Standwich, immediately leaped from his horse, and drawing a handsome sword which he bore, thrust it into his belly, and so killed him.

His men advancing, saw their leader dead, when they cried out: 'They have killed our captain, let us march to them, and slay the whole.' On these words, they drew up in a sort of battle array, each man having his bow bent before him.

The king.

rode up to these rebellious fellows, who were advancing to revenge their leader's death, and said to them: Gentlemen,

Scymitar, a short curved sword.

what are you about? You shall have no other captain but me. I am your king: remain peaceable.' When the greater part of them heard these words they were quite ashamed, and those inclined to peace began to slip away.

A proclamation was made through all the streets, that everyone who was not an inhabitant of London, and who had not resided there for a whole year should instantly depart: for that, if there were any found of a contrary description on Sunday morning at sun-rise, they would be arrested as traitors to the king, and have their heads cut off.

After this proclamation had been heard, no one dared to infringe it, but all departed instantly to their own houses, quite discomfited. John Ball and Jack Straw were found hidden in an old ruin, thinking to steal away; but this they could not do, for they were betrayed by their own men. Their heads were cut off, as was that of Wat Tyler, and fixed on London Bridge, in the place of those gallant men whom they beheaded on the Thursday.

Those who were on their way to London returned to their homes, without daring to advance further.

155

THE PIKE.

(IZAAC WALTON.)

THE mighty Luce or Pike is taken to be the tyrant, as the salmon is the king, of the fresh

waters.

6

Sir Francis Bacon, in his History of Life and Death,' observes the pike to be the longestlived of any fresh-water fish-and yet he computes it to be not usually above forty years, and others think it to be not above ten years; and yet Gesner mentions a pike taken in Swedeland, in the year 1449, with a ring about his neck, declaring he was put into that pond by Frederic II. more than two hundred years before he was last taken, as by the inscription on that ring, being Greek, was interpreted by the then Bishop of Worms.

But of this—no more, but that it is observed that the old or very great pikes have in them more of state than goodness; the smaller or middle-sized pikes being, by the most and choicest palates, observed to be the best meat: and, contrary, the eel is observed to be the better for age and bigness.

All pikes that live long prove chargeable to their keepers, because their life is maintained by the death of so many other fish, even those of their own kind; which has made him, by some writers, to be called the tyrant of the rivers, or the fresh-water wolf, by reason of his bold, greedy, devouring disposition; which is so keen that, as Gesner relates, a man going to a pond-where it seems a pike had devoured all the fish-to water his mule, had a pike bit his mule by the lips, to which the pike hung so fast that the mule drew him out of the water; and by that accident the owner of the mule angled out the pike. And the same Gesner observes, that a maid in Poland had a pike bit her by the foot, as she was washing clothes in a pond. And I have heard the like of a woman in Killingworth pond, not far from Coventry. But I have been assured, by my friend Mr. Seagrave, that keeps tame otters, that he hath known a pike, in extreme hunger, fight with one of his otters for a carp that the otter had caught and was then bringing out of the water.

But if these relations be disbelieved, it is too evident to be doubted that a pike will devour a fish, of his own kind, that shall be bigger than his belly or throat will receive, and swallow a

part of him, and let the other part remain in his mouth till the swallowed part be digested, and then swallow that other part that was in his mouth, and so put it over by degrees; which is not unlike the ox, and some other beasts, taking their meat-not out of their mouth immediately into their belly, but first into some place betwixt, and then chew it or digest it by degrees after, which is called chewing the cud. And, doubtless, pikes will bite when they are not hungry, but, as some think, even for very anger, when a tempting bait comes near to them.

And it is observed, that the pike will eat venomous things, as some kind of frogs are, and yet live without being harmed by them; for, as some say, he has in him a natural balsam or antidote against all poison. And he has a strange heat, that, though it appears to us to be cold, can yet digest or put over any fishflesh, by degrees, without being sick. And others observe that he never eats the venomous frog till he have first killed her, and then-as ducks are observed to do to frogs in spawning time, at which time some frogs are observed to be venomous-so thoroughly washed her, by tumbling her up and down in the water, that