Page:Landholding in England.djvu/111

 On 27th May several proclamations ordered them to "surcease their disorder," but "they ceased not, but rather persisted more eagerly, and thereupon the Sheriffs and Justices had authority to suppress them by force." Thereupon the sheriffs "raised an army and scattered them," using all possible means to avoid bloodshed. By this time the levellers had a leader. We are told that "at the first these foresaid multitudes assembled themselves without any particular head or guide. Then starts up a base fellow called John Reynoldes, whom they surnamed Captain Powch, because of a great leather powch which he wore by his side, in which purse he affirmed to his company, that there was sufficient matter to defend them against all comers, but afterward when he was apprehended, his powch was searched, and there was only a piece of green cheese. He told them also that he had authority from his majesty to throw down Enclosures, and that he was sent of God to satisfy all degrees whatsoever, and that in this present worke, he was directed by the Lord of Heaven, and thereupon they generally inclined to his direction, so as he kept them in good order, he commanded them not to swear, nor to offer violence to any person ; but to ply their business and to make fair work."

Poor Pouch thought he was invulnerable—neither bullet nor arrow could hurt him. He told his followers that the spell in his pouch would only work if they abstained from swearing and violence.

When the sheriff's "army" came up, and the levellers were summoned to disperse, Pouch told the magistrates that they were only enforcing the statute against enclosures. To their credit, the yeomanry did not much care about shooting the people, and many country gentlemen were for giving them their old rights of common. It was now that the King sent Lords Huntingdon, Exeter and Zouch, with a considerable force. Sir Antony Mildmay and Sir Edward Montague fell in with the levellers at Newton—another confiscated estate of the Treshams'. They were busy digging and levelling, and were armed "with half-piked staves, long bills, bows and arrows, and stones." There was "great backwardness in the trained bands"—Mildmay and Montague dared not order them to charge. They used "all the horse they could make, and as many foot of their