Soon the prisons were broken open, and their inmates had joined the
insurgent ranks. The palace of the Duke of Lancaster, the Savoy, the
most beautiful in England, was quickly in flames. That nobleman,
detested by the people, had fled in all haste to Scotland. The Temple,
the head-quarters of the lawyers, was set on fire, and its books and
documents reduced to ashes. The houses of the foreign merchants were
burned. There was "method in the madness" of the insurgents. They sought
no indiscriminate ruin. The lawyers and the foreigners were their
special detestation. Robbery was not permitted. One thief was seen with
a silver vessel which he had stolen from the Savoy. He and his plunder
were flung together into the flames. They were, as they boasted,
"seekers of truth and justice, not thieves or robbers."
Thus passed the first day of the peasant occupation of London, the
people of the town in terror, the insurgents in subjection to their
leaders, and still more so to their own ideas. Many of them were drunk,
but no outrages were committed. The influence of one terrible example
repressed all theft. Never had so orderly a mob held possession of so
great a city.
On the second day, Wat Tyler and a band of his followers forced their
way into the Tower.
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