THAT WAS HOW IT BEGAN, that first day.

Barely a hundred of us, farmers, tailors, and shepherds, makeshift weapons in hand, food and other supplies carted behind. We started on the road toward Treille.

But by the next town we were two hundred, people kneeling before the lance, grabbing their belongings. By Sur le Gavre we werethree hundred, and at the crossroad between north and south, a hundred more were waiting, clubs and hoes and wooden shields in hand.

I marched at the front, carrying the lance. I could not believe these folk had come to follow me, in a fool's suit, yet at every corner, more joined us.

They knelt-husbands, wives-kissing the lance, and Christ's blood, singing praise and vowing the nobles would crush them no longer. Banners were hoisted, with the purple and white lions of Treille upside down or with the crest slashed and tattered.

It was like the hermit's march all over again. The hope and promise that had captured my soul more than two years before. Simple men-farmers and serfs and bondmen-banded together to raise up their lives. Believing that the time had finally come. That if we stood up with the might of numbers, no matter how long the odds, we could be free.

Are you tired of being shat on? went the refrain as we wound past a watching goatherd.

Aye, came the reply. I've been tired my whole life.

And what would you risk, another would shout, to gain your freedom?

All I have. Which is nothing. Why do you think I'm here?

The ranks swelled with people from all corners of the forest.Follow the lance was the cri de coeur.The lance held by the fool.

By St. Felix, we had grown to seven hundred strong. By Montres, we had lost count. We could no longer feed them; we had no more stocks or provisions. I knew we could not stand a drawn-out siege, yet people continually joined.

Near Moulin Vieux, Odo edged his way up to the front. Behind us was a column of peasants at least a thousand strong.

The big smith grinned, walking alongside me. You have a plan, don't you, Hugh? He eyed me warily.

Of course I have a plan. You think I brought all these folks along for a picnic in the woods?

Good. He sighed. He dropped back into the ranks. Never doubted...

Of course Hugh has a plan, I heard him whisper to Georges the miller, a row behind.

From Moulin Vieux, Treille was two days' march a............