Fast eBooks

The talk of
laborer, woodman and villein in the inn had all pointed to the
wide-spread mutiny, and now his brother's name was spoken as
though he were the very centre of the universal discontent. In
good truth, the commons throughout the length and breadth of the
land were heart-weary of this fine game of chivalry which had
been played so long at their expense. So long as knight and
baron were a strength and a guard to the kingdom they might be
endured, but now, when all men knew that the great battles in
France had been won by English yeomen and Welsh stabbers, warlike
fame, the only fame to which his class had ever aspired, appeared
to have deserted the plate-clad horsemen. The sports of the
lists had done much in days gone by to impress the minds of the
people, but the plumed and unwieldy champion was no longer an
object either of fear or of reverence to men whose fathers and
brothers had shot into the press at Crecy or Poitiers, and seen
the proudest chivalry in the world unable to make head against
the weapons of disciplined peasants.


Pages:
142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166