promised us. Since we are very suspicious of him on that account—for he would pretend that he is ill and unable to mount a horse—and being afraid lest he betray us to his brother-in-law, the king, and come upon us with an army from the rear, we had this impregnable wagon built, so that if we have to perish in battle, he will have to perish at the same time with us. Plenty of firewood has already been placed underneath the wagon that he is in so that it can be used to set it alight.’ At these words, those who were on the king’s side, whom I have named above as the more powerful ones, were emboldened, and rushed towards the vehicle, thinking that Simon was inside it. But as long as they attacked the deceptive vehicle with great force, they profited nothing in overcoming it, their weapons as well as their spirits being insufficient. And that wagon helped the Londoners a great deal. For so long as many of the king’s army were working around its weakness so that it might be broken by their most violent efforts, the lives of many whom I have called Londoners and who were stationed either close by or at a distance from the wagon were being saved. For the barons had not yet joined them, and in the delay of waiting for them while the deceptive vehicle was being attacked, most of the Londoners had hardly engaged, so that by the time the barons’ army arrived behind the king’s army to the rear, the greater part of the Londoners, who were particularly in the face of the royal army and who had been near the wagon, preserved their strength intact, which is without doubt the reason they later fought more robustly in every way against the exhausted men of the king’s army. And this is partly why the deceptive vehicle was constructed, so that there should be more than enough security for the safety of the citizens of the city of London; so that while it was being violently assaulted, the royalists inside would be tossed about all over the place and be confused, and the Londoners would be saved, conserving their strength (as we have said) sufficiently intact. Most of the day—almost till the eighth hour—was spent as the bravest fighters followed after the most outstanding mounted warriors from the king’s army, charging with almost mad force towards the impregnable wagon in order to drag Simon out, because they thought he was inside; and not without losing their strongest men, not without the great loss of countless weapons, and not without severe fatigue and much anguish.
The strongest of the king’s warriors appeared to have been seized with madness, filling the air with such a tremendous clamour, calling out, ‘Simon, Simon, come out!’ For it was supposed that Simon had with him inside the wagon the means by which he could let himself out. So it was that they repeatedly called out these chants, ‘Out! Out! Simon, you devil! Get out of the wagon, you wretched traitor!’ As they repeated these and similar things over and over at the top of their voices, they heard from those inside that the Simon whom they were looking for was not there, but only two citizens of London whom Simon, in contempt of the king, was known to have betrayed—‘Lest the city of London be returned by us to the king’s cause,’ they said, ‘if we had remained at home after Simon had led the others out of the city to do battle against the king.’ But it should be known that nobody of sound mind ought to classify or call Simon by the name of ‘traitor’; for he was not a traitor but the most devout supporter and faithful protector of God’s Church in England; the shield and defender of the kingdom of the English; and an enemy of the foreigners; who drove them out, even though he was himself by birth