might have made himself dictator of the
kingdom. But he could not control the
passions of the Kentish men who thirsted for
the blood of Lord Say, the high treasurer,
and of his son-in-law Crowmer, the sheriff.
The king, on taking his departure, had not
left the city entirely at the mercy of the
insurgents; but had left a valiant
commander, one Matthew Gough, whom Stow
quaintly calls "a manly and warly man,"
in command of the Tower when he and his
court effected their ignominious retreat to
Kenilworth, with strict orders to watch
the movements of the citizens, and prevent
them from lending effective assistance to
Cade. All but the very wealthiest of the
inhabitants were on the side of the
rebellion, and even some of these wavered
in their allegiance to their weak sovereign
and his corrupt surroundings. On the 3rd
of July, Cade for the second time entered
the city from Southwark, amid the
acclamations of the people, and proceeding to
the Guildhall, where the Lord Mayor sat
for the administration of justice, ordered,
rather than requested, that functionary, to
send for Lord Say to the Tower, and have
him arraigned forthwith for malfeasences in
his office, and for oppression of the people.
Lord Say took objection to the Lord
Mayor's jurisdiction, and demanded to be
tried by his peers; but Cade's followers,
whether with or without the order or
concurrence of the Captain does not very
clearly appear, laid violent hands on the
unhappy nobleman, led him out to the
conduit in Cheapside, struck off his head
and placed it upon a pole, and afterwards
drew his naked body through the streets
from Cheapside to Cade's head-quarters in
Southwark. A similar fate befell Crowmer,
the unpopular Sheriff of Kent, and
the ferocious multitude, bearing his head
upon a pole, presented its dead lips to
the dead lips of Lord Say, as if the two
were kissing, to the great delight of
the rabble, and to the disgust of the
respectable citizens. That evening Cade
dined with Philip Malpas, an alderman
and wealthy draper, well affected to his
cause; but unluckily some of his unruly
followers, setting at nought Cade's edict
against pillage, despoiled the rich
merchant's house, and carried off his plate and
other valuables. This and a similar
robbery committed on the following day at
the house of another wealthy citizen, named
Gherstis, proved to be the turning points of
Cade's fortunes. The leading citizens,
though alarmed at the turbulence of the
mob in the murder of Lord Say and the
Sheriff of Kent, might have forgiven
murder, but could not forgive pillage, and
it was resolved by the Lord Mayor and
aldermen, counselled by the "manly and
warly" soldier at the Tower, that when
Cade next left the city for Southwark, his
departure should, if possible, be final, and
that his re-entry over the bridge should be
opposed by the whole available force both
of the Tower and of the city. Had Cade,
in the first flush of victory, established
himself in the heart of London, as he
might easily have done, this difficulty
would have been avoided. Matthew Gough
seems to have been well aware of the
strategic mistake the Kentish leader had
thus committed, and undertook to defend
the bridge the next time that Cade and
his followers attempted to cross it. He
had not to wait long for his opportunity.
At nine o'clock in the evening of Sunday
the 5th of July, having in the morning
caused one of his followers to be beheaded
for pillage, with a view no doubt of
conciliating the wealthy Londoners, and proving
to them that he individually had no
part in the pillage of rich aldermen, Cade,
at the head of his company, attempted to
enter the city. Stow thus tells what ensued:

"On the fifth of July, the Captaine being
in Southwarke caused a man to be
beheaded there, and that day entred not the
Citie. When night was come, the Mayor
and the Citizens with Mathew Gough, kept
the passage of the bridge against the
Kentishmen which made great force to re-
enter the Citie. Then the Captaine seeing
this bickering, went to harness, and
assembled his people, and set so fiercely upon
the Citizens, he drave them back from the
stoupes in Southwarke, or bridge foote,
unto the drawbridge in defending whereof
many a man was drowned and slaine.
Among the which was John Sutton, Alderman,
Mathew Gough, a squire of Wales,
and Roger Hoisand, Citizen. This skirmish
continued all night till nine of the clocke
on the morrow, so that sometime the
Citizens had the better, and sometimes the
other, but ever they kept them on the
bridge so that the Citizens never passed
much the bulwarke at the bridge foote,
nor the Kentishmen no farther than the
drawbridge. Thus continuing the cruel
fight, to the destruction of much people on
both sides, lastly, after the Kentishmen
were put to the worst, a truce was agreed
upon for certaine houres."

The disaffection of the citizens of
London, and its hourly, if not momentary
increase, becoming known to the Archbishop