Page:Captain of the Polestar.djvu/238

 224 and your men are trailing over the moor like a flock of geese when Michaelmas is near?'

"`Good captain,' said Allen, doffing his bonnet, an example followed by others of the band, `we have captured a goodly youth who was pricking it along the London road. Methought that some word of thanks were meet reward for such service, rather than taunt or threat.'

"`Nay, take it not to heart, bold Allen,' exclaimed their leader, who was none other than the great Jack Cade himself. `Thou knowest of old that my temper is somewhat choleric, and my tongue not greased with that unguent which oils the mouths of the lip-serving lords of the land.  And you,' he continued, turning suddenly upon our hero, `are you ready to join the great cause which will make England what it was when the learned Alfred reigned in the land?  Zounds, man, speak out, and pick not your phrases.'

"`I am ready to do aught which may become a knight and a gentleman,' said the soldier stoutly.

"`Taxes shall be swept away!' cried Cade excitedly—`the impost and the anpost—the tithe and the hundred-tax. The poor man's salt-box and flour-bin shall be as free as the nobleman's cellar.  Ha! what sayest thou?'

"`It is but just,' said our hero.

"`Ay, but they give us such justice as the falcon gives the leveret!' roared the orator. `Down with them, I say—down with every man of them!  Noble and judge, priest and king, down with them all!'