among the common people: and complained
of "that greene waxe, which is freely used to
the perpetual destruction of the king's true
Commons of Kent." It is this mention of
greene waxe, with which exchequer writs,
so loudly complained of by Cade, appear
to have been sealed, that excited the mirth
of the dramatist, when he makes Cade
say, "Is not this a lamentable thing, that
of the skin of an innocent lamb should be
made parchment, and that parchment scribbled
o'er should undo a man? Some say
the bee stings, but I say it is the bees' wax,
for I did but seal once to a thing, and I
was never more my own man since."

This paragraph further complained of
several kinds of extortion to which the
Commons were subjected, and specially
named "four extortioners and false
traitors," who were to be punished as an
example to similar evil-doers, one of whom
named Crowmer, Sheriff of Kent, afterwards
fell into Cade's hands, and was
decapitated without shrift.

King Henry, urged on by Queen Margaret
and by the people in her interest, whose
heads would have been in very considerable
danger had Cade been triumphant, resolved,
after misgivings, which, to a man of his easy,
amiable nature, were probably both sore and
long-protracted, to take the field against
Cade. He could muster, however, no more
than fifteen thousand men against Cade's
one hundred thousand. Cade, who did not
wish to fight the king, for whose "sacred"
person he expressed much devotion, retired
unexpectedly from Blackheath to Sevenoaks.
Henry did not follow; but
dispatched a force under Sir Humphrey
Stafford, to do battle with the formidable rebel.
Sir Humphrey and his brother were killed,
and their force routed with great loss.
Cade, highly elated, returned to
Blackheath; and the poor king, losing courage,
retreated to the very heart of England—to
Kenilworth Castle—leaving to others the
task, either of fighting or parleying with
the redoubtable leader of the Commons.
The king, as Hall's Chronicle reports, was
not quite certain of the fidelity of his own
troops. "The king's army," says the
historian, "being at Blackheath, and hearing
of his discomfiture (that of Sir
Humphrey Stafford), began to grudge and
murmur among themselves; some wishing
the Duke of York at home to aid his
cousin (the Captain of Kent); some
desiring the overthrow of the king and his
counsel, others openly crying out on the
queen and her accomplices." The
circumstances were evidently serious, and Cade
was well nigh master of the situation. To
allay the popular excitement, the king was
advised to commit several of the persons
against whom the tide of indignation ran
strongest to the Tower; notably, the Lord
Say, and his son-in-law, Crowmer, the
Sheriff of Kent; both of whom were held in
particular disesteem by the Commons of
Kent. This concession, however, was not
sufficient to satisfy either Cade or the
Commons, and Cade marched back from the
scene of his little victory at Sevenoaks, to
his old quarters at Blackheath, to confer
with his friends in the city of London.
On the part of the king, or rather of the
queen, two powerful nobles were deputed
to wait upon him in his camp, and ascertain
on what conditions he would lay down
his arms, and disband his followers. Cade
was equal to the encounter of argument,
and though described by Shakespeare as a
coarse and illiterate bully, he was found
to be a person of a very different stamp by
the Archbishop of Canterbury and
Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, the two great
peers who sought a conference with him.
Hall describes Cade as "a young man of a
goodly stature and a pregnant wit." The
lords "found him," he adds, "sober in
communication, wise in disputing, arrogant
in heart, stiff in opinion, and by no means
possible to be persuaded to dissolve his
army, except the king in person would come
to him, and consent to all things which he
would require."

Cade was now at the very zenith of his
fortunes, and had the Duke of York, then
absent in Ireland, hastened over to his
support, it is likely that the White Rose
would have taken the place of the Red,
and that Henry the Sixth would have had
to moralise sooner than he did, upon the
miseries that encompassed anointed kings.
But the Duke of York did not make his
appearance, and Cade was left to himself to
fight the battle of the Commons, rather than
the battle of a claimant to the crown. But
as it happens in all times, there are men
whose heads are turned with the full flow
and tide of prosperity, and Cade was of the
number. He struggled bravely against
adversity, but good fortune was too much for
him. He made a triumphal entry from
Southwark into the city over the bridge,
which was then the sole means of ingress
for an army, and passing London Stone in
Watling-street, struck it with his sword in
the pride of his heart, as if to take possession,
exclaiming, "Now is Mortimer Lord
of this City!" And he was lord of it: and
could he have held his followers in order,