Page:History of Wat Tyler and Jack Straw.pdf/3

                             (  3  ) and Justices; who either by fear of dis- contenting him, or neglect of their duty, or both., every one was more ready to please him with childish and delightful conceits, than assist him with good and profitable council, to qualify him the bet- ter that important office in which he was placed

In the beginning of the King's reign the French on the one side, and the Scots on the other cruelly infected this land, until John Philpot Citizen and Alder- man of London, lamenting the misery of the times, occasioned by the neglect of luting the coast, and scouring the seas whereby the merchant durst not traffick abroad for fear of pirates, who hovered on every corner ; but especially one Mer- cer a Scottish Rover, who had got to- gether a great fleet of French, Scotch, and Spaniards, and with them did rob all they met and did a great deal of mis- chief, comlained thereof to the King's Council, acquainting them with the daily wrongs sultained by the said Mercer, im- ploring their aid; but receiving from them no relief, he at his own cost fit. out a fleet of ships, and went with