The incidental descriptions of the life of the working classes which we find in Piers Ploughman show that this increase of social comfort had been going on even during the troubled period which preceded the outbreak of the peasants, and it went on faster after the revolt was over.

But inevitable as such a progress was, every step of it was taken in the teeth of the wealthier classes.

Their temper indeed at the close of the rising was that of men frenzied by panic and the taste of blood.

They scouted all notion of concession.

The stubborn will of the conquered was met by as stubborn a will in their conquerors.