"Leave him to us, Sir Jocelyn," said Dick Taverner.
"Ay, he had better not interfere, of he will come in for his share of
the blows," roared several voices.
"I care not what befals me," shouted Mounchensey. "You shall not injure
a hair of his Excellency's head while I stand by."
And as he spoke he warded off several blows aimed at the ambassador.
"I am with you, Sir Jocelyn," said Clement Lanyere, clearing a space
around them with his long rapier, but avoiding, so far as possible,
doing injury to the 'prentices.
At this critical juncture, and when it seemed likely that, owing to his
chivalrous interference, Sir Jocelyn would share the ambassador's fate,
he being fairly resolved, as he showed, to defend him with his life, a
cry was raised that a body of the royal guards were approaching; and as
the trampling of horse, accompanied by the clatter of swords, left no
doubt of the fact, and as, moreover, the bold 'prentices felt no
disposition to encounter regular soldiery, they instantly abandoned
their prey and took to their beels, the chief part of them leaping the
hedge which then grew along the north side of Holborn, and scouring off
through the fields in every direction. Some half dozen were made
prisoners by the guard; and amongst these, we regret to state, was the
leader of the riotous assembly, Dick Taverner.
"Thou art likely to make acquaintance with the pillory and the cart's
tail, if not with the hangman, friend," said the soldier who secured
him, with a laugh.
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