 was greatly addicted from my youth. I
was, while a boy, a great partisan of prince John's against his brother Richard,
during the latter's absence in the holy war and in his captivity. I was no more
than one-and-twenty when I first began to make political speeches in publick,
and to endeavour to foment disquietude and discontent in the city. As I was
pretty well qualified for this office, by a great fluency of words, an
harmonious accent, a graceful delivery, and above all an invincible assurance, I
had soon acquired some reputation among the younger citizens, and some of the
weaker and more inconsiderate of a riper age. This, co-operating with my own
natural vanity, made me extravagantly proud and supercilious. I soon began to
esteem myself a man of some consequence, and to overlook persons every way my
superiors.«
    »The famous Robin Hood, and his companion Little John, at this time made a
considerable figure in Yorkshire. I took upon me to write a letter to the
former, in the name of the city, inviting him to come to London, where I assured
him of very good reception, signifying to him my own great weight and
consequence, and how much I had disposed the citizens in his favour. Whether he
received this letter or no I am not certain; but he never gave me any answer to
it.«
    »A little afterwards one William Fitz-Osborn, or, as he was nicknamed,
William Long-Beard, began to make a figure in the city. He was a bold and an
impudent fellow, and had raised himself to great popularity with the rabble, by
pretending to espouse their cause against the rich. I took this man's part, and
made a public oration in his favour, setting him forth as a patriot, and one who
had embarked in the cause of liberty: for which service he did not receive me
with the acknowledgments I expected. However, as I thought I should easily gain
the ascendant over this fellow, I continued still firm on his side, till the
archbishop of Canterbury, with an armed force, put an end to his progress: for
he was seized in Bow-church, where he had taken refuge, and with nine of his
accomplices hanged in chains.«
    »I escaped narrowly myself; for I was seized in the same church with the
rest, and, as I had been very considerably engaged in the enterprize, the
archbishop was inclined to make me an example; but my father's merit, who had
