Chapter xxiii.
_The life of alderman Julian._
"I now revisited England, and was born at London. My father was one ofthe magistrates of that city. He had eleven children, of whom I was theeldest. He had great success in trade, and grew extremely rich, but thelargeness of his family rendered it impossible for him to leave me afortune sufficient to live well on independent of business. I wasaccordingly brought up to be a fishmonger, in which capacity I myselfafterwards acquired very considerable wealth.
"The same disposition of mind which in princes is called ambition is insubjects named faction. To this temper I was greatly addicted from myyouth. I was, while a boy, a great partisan of prince John's againsthis brother Richard, during the latter's absence in the holy war and inhis captivity. I was no more than one-and-twenty when I first began tomake political speeches in publick, and to endeavour to fomentdisquietude and discontent in the city. As I was pretty well qualifiedfor this office, by a great fluency of words, an harmonious accent, agraceful delivery, and above all an invincible assurance, I had soonacquired some reputation among the younger citizens, and some of theweaker and more inconsiderate of a riper age. This, co-operating with myown natural vanity, made me extravagantly proud and supercilious. I soonbegan to esteem myself a man of some consequence, and to overlookpersons every way my superiors.
"The famous Robin Hood, and his companion Little John, at this time madea considerable figure in Yorkshire. I took upon me to write a letter tothe 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 owngreat weight and consequence, and how much I had disposed the citizensin 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 boldand an impudent fellow, and had raised himself to great popularity withthe rabble, by pretending to espouse their cause against the rich. Itook this man's part, and made a public oration in his favour, settinghim forth as a patriot, and one who had embarked in the cause ofliberty: for which service he did not receive me with theacknowledgments I expected. However, as I thought I should easily gainthe ascendant over this fellow, I continued still firm on his side,till the archbishop of Canterbury, with an armed force, put an end tohis progress: for he was seized in Bow-church, where he had takenrefuge, and with nine of his accomplices hanged in chains.
"I escaped narrowly myself; for I was seized in the same church with therest, and, as I had been very considerably engaged in the enterprize,the archbishop was inclined to make me an example; but my father'smerit, who had advanced a considerable sum to queen Eleanor towards theking's ransom, preserved me.
"The consternation my danger had occasioned kept me some time quiet, andI applied myself very assiduously to my trade. I invented all manner ofmethods to enhance the price of fish, and made use of my utmostendeavours to engross as much of the business as possible in my ownhands. By these means I acquired a substance which raised me to somelittle consequence in the city, but far from elevating me to that degreewhich I had formerly flattered myself with possessing at a time when Iwas totally insignificant; for, in a trading society, money must atleast lay the foundation of all power and interest.
"But as it hath been remarked that the same ambition which sentAlexander into Asia brings the wrestler on the green; and as this sameambition is as incapable as quicksilver of lying still; so I, who waspossessed perhaps of a share equal to what hath fired the blood of anyof the heroes of antiquity, was no less restless and discontented withease and quiet. My first endeavours were to make myself head of mycompany, which Richard I. had just published, and soon afterwards Iprocured myself to be chosen alderman.
"Opposition is the only state which can give a subject an opportunity ofexerting the disposition I was possessed of. Accordingly, king John wasno sooner seated on his throne than I began to oppose his measures,whether right or wrong. It is true that monarch had faults enow. He wasso abandoned to lust and luxury, that he addicted himself to the mostextravagant excesses in both, while he indolently suffered the king ofFrance to rob him of almost all his foreign dominions: my oppositiontherefore was justifiable enough, and if my motive from within had beenas good as the occasion from without I should have had little to excuse;but, in truth, I sought nothing but my own preferment, by making myselfformidable to the king, and then selling to him the interest of thatparty by whose means I had become so. Indeed, had the public good beenmy care, however zealously I might have opposed the beginning of hisreign, I should not have scrupled to lend him my utmost assistance inthe struggle between him and pope Innocent the third, in which he was somanifestly in the right; nor have suffered the insolence of that pope,and the power of the king of France, to have compelled him in the issue,basely to resign his crown into the hands of the former, and receive itagain as a vassal; by means of which acknowledgment the pope afterwardsclaimed this kingdom as a tributary fief to be held of the papal chair;a claim which occasioned great uneasiness to many subsequent princes,and brought numberless calamities on the nation.
"As the king had, among other concessions, stipulated to pay animmediate sum of money to Pandulph, which he had great difficulty toraise, it was absolutely necessary for him to apply to the city, wheremy interest and popularity were so high that he had no hopes without myassistance. As I knew this, I took care to sell myself and country ashigh as possible. The terms I demanded, therefore, were a place, apension, and a knighthood. All those were immediately consented to. Iwas forthwith knighted, and promised the other two.
"I now mounted the hustings, and, without any regard to decency ormodesty, made as emphatical a speech in favour of the king as before Ihad done against him. In this speech I justified all those measureswhich I had before condemned, and pleaded as earnestly with myfellow-citizens to open their purses, as I had formerly done to prevailwith them to keep them shut. But, alas! my rhetoric had not the effect Iproposed. The consequence of my arguments was only contempt to myself.The people at first stared on one another, and afterwards beganunanimously to express their dislike. An impudent fellow among them,reflecting on my trade, cryed out, 'Stinking fish;' which wasimmediately reiterated through the whole croud. I was then forced toslink away home; but I was not able to accomplish my retreat withoutbeing attended by the mob, who huzza'd me along the street with therepeated cries of 'Stinking fish.'
"I now proceeded to court, to inform his majesty of my faithful service,and how much I had suffered in his cause. I found by my first receptionhe had already heard of my success. Instead of thanking me for myspeech, he said the city should repent of their obstinacy, for that hewould shew them who he was: and so saying, he immediately turned thatpart to me to which the toe of man hath so wonderful an affection, thatit is very difficult, whenever it presents itself conveniently, to keepour toes from the most violent and ardent salutation of it.
"I was a little nettled at this behaviour, and with some earnestnessclaimed the king's fulfilling his promise; but he retired withoutanswering me. I then applied to some of the courtiers, who had latelyprofessed great friendship to me, had eat at my house, and invited me totheirs: but not one would return me any answer, all running away from meas if I had been seized with some contagious distemper. I now found byexperience that, as none can be so civil, so none can be ruder than acourtier.
"A few moments after the king's retiring I was left alone in the room toconsider what I should do or whither I should turn myself. My receptionin the city promised itself to be equal at least with what I found atcourt. However, there was my home, and thither it was necessary I shouldretreat for the present.
"But, indeed, bad as I apprehended my treatment in the city would be, itexceeded my expectation. I rode home on an ambling pad through croudswho expressed every kind of disregard and contempt; pelting me not onlywith the most abusive language, but with dirt. However, wit
h muchdifficulty I arrived at last at my own house, with my bones whole, butcovered over with filth.
"When I was got within my doors, and had shut them against the mob, whohad pretty well vented their spleen, and seemed now contented to retire,my wife, whom I found crying over her children, and from whom I hadhoped some comfort in my afflictions, fell upon me in the mostoutrageous manner. She asked me why I would venture on such a step,without consulting her; she said her advice might have been civillyasked, if I was resolved not to have been guided by it. That, whateveropinion I might have conceived of her understanding, the rest of theworld thought better of it. That I had never failed when I had asked hercounsel, nor ever succeeded without it;--with much more of the samekind, too tedious to mention; concluding that it was a monstrousbehaviour to desert my party and come over to the court. An abuse whichI took worse than all the rest, as she had been constantly for severalyears assiduous in railing at the opposition, in siding with thecourt-party, and begging me to come over to it; and especially after mymentioning the offer of knighthood to her, since which time she hadcontinually interrupted my repose with dinning in my ears the folly ofrefusing honours and of adhering to a party and to principles by which Iwas certain of procuring no advantage to myself and my family.
"I had now entirely lost my trade, so that I had not the leasttemptation to stay longer in a city where I was certain of receivingdaily affronts and rebukes. I therefore made up my affairs with theutmost expedition, and, scraping together all I could, retired into thecountry, where I spent the remainder of my days in universal contempt,being shunned by everybody, perpetually abused by my wife, and not muchrespected by my children.
"Minos told me, though I had been a very vile fellow, he thought mysufferings made some atonement, and so bid me take the other trial."