"Yea,friend,"I said,"but in those latter days all power shall be in the hands of these foul swine,and they shall be the rulers of all;therefore,hearken,for I tell thee that times of plenty shall in those days be the times of famine,and all shall pray for the prices of wares to rise,so that the forestallers and regraters may thrive,and that some of their well-doing may overflow on to those on whom they live.""I am weary of thy riddles,"he said."Yet at least I hope that there may be fewer and fewer folk in the land;as may well be,if life is then so foul and wretched.""Alas,poor man!"I said;"nor mayst thou imagine how foul and wretched it may be for many of the folk;and yet I tell thee that men shall increase and multiply,till where there is one man in the land now,there shall be twenty in those days--yea,in some places ten times twenty.""I have but little heart to ask thee more questions,"said he;"and when thou answerest,thy words are plain,but the things they tell of I may scarce understand.But tell me this:in those days will men deem that so it must be for ever,as great men even now tell us of our ills,or will they think of some remedy?"I looked about me.There was but a glimmer of light in the church now,but what there was,was no longer the strange light of the moon,but the first coming of the kindly day.
"Yea,"said John Ball,"'tis the twilight of the dawn.God and St.Christopher send us a good day!""John Ball,"said I,"I have told thee that thy death will bring about that which thy life has striven for:thinkest thou that the thing which thou strivest for is worth the labour?or dost thou believe in the tale I have told thee of the days to come?"He said:"I tell thee once again that I trust thee for a seer;because no man could make up such a tale as thou;the things which thou tellest are too wonderful for a minstrel,the tale too grievous.And whereas thou askest as to whether I count my labour lost,I say nay;if so be that in those latter times (and worser than ours they will be)men shall yet seek a remedy:
therefore again I ask thee,is it so that they shall?""Yea,"said I,"and their remedy shall be the same as thine,although the days be different:for if the folk be enthralled,what remedy save that they be set free?and if they have tried many roads towards freedom,and found that they led no-whither,then shall they try yet another.Yet in the days to come they shall be slothful to try it,because their masters shall be so much mightier than thine,that they shall not need to show the high hand,and until the days get to their evilest,men shall be cozened into thinking that it is of their own free will that they must needs buy leave to labour by pawning their labour that is to be.Moreover,your lords and masters seem very mighty to you,each one of them,and so they are,but they are few;and the masters of the days to come shall not each one of them seem very mighty to the men of those days,but they shall be very many,and they shall be of one intent in these matters without knowing it;like as one sees the oars of a galley when the rowers are hidden,that rise and fall as it were with one will.""And yet,"he said,"shall it not be the same with those that these men devour?shall not they also have one will?""Friend,"I said,"they shall have the will to live,as the wretchedest thing living has:therefore shall they sell themselves that they may live,as I told thee;and their hard need shall be their lord's easy livelihood,and because of it he shall sleep without fear,since their need compelleth them not to loiter by the way to lament with friend or brother that they are pinched in their servitude,or to devise means for ending it.
And yet indeed thou sayest it:they also shall have one will if they but knew it:but for a long while they shall have but a glimmer of knowledge of it:yet doubt it not that in the end they shall come to know it clearly,and then shall they bring about the remedy;and in those days shall it be seen that thou hast not wrought for nothing,because thou hast seen beforehand what the remedy should be,even as those of later days have seen it."We both sat silent a little while.The twilight was gaining on the night,though slowly.I looked at the poppy which I still held in my hand,and bethought me of Will Green,and said:
"Lo,how the light is spreading:now must I get me back to Will Green's house as I promised.""Go,then,"said he,"if thou wilt.Yet meseems before long he shall come to us;and then mayst thou sleep among the trees on the green grass till the sun is high,for the host shall not be on foot very early;and sweet it is to sleep in shadow by the sun in the full morning when one has been awake and troubled through the night-tide.""Yet I will go now,"said I;"I bid thee good-night,or rather good-morrow."Therewith I half rose up;but as I did so the will to depart left me as though I had never had it,and I sat down again,and heard the voice of John Ball,at first as one speaking from far away,but little by little growing nearer and more familiar to me,and as if once more it were coming from the man himself whom I had got to know.
