Great hubbub was going on
in the Guild Hall of the town, also, for here a grand banquet was to be
given to the King and the nobles of his train, and the best master
carpenters were busy building a throne where the King and the Sheriff
were to sit at the head of the table, side by side.
It seemed to many of the good folk of the place as if the day that
should bring the King into the town would never come; but all the same
it did come in its own season, and bright shone the sun down into the
stony streets, which were all alive with a restless sea of people. On
either side of the way great crowds of town and country folk stood
packed as close together as dried herring in a box, so that the Sheriffs
men, halberds in hands, could hardly press them back to leave space for
the King's riding.
"Take care whom thou pushest against!" cried a great, burly friar to one
of these men. "Wouldst thou dig thine elbows into me, sirrah? By'r Lady
of the Fountain, an thou dost not treat me with more deference I will
crack thy knave's pate for thee, even though thou be one of the mighty
Sheriff's men.
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