What followed could only have been accomplished:  by cavalry, by cavalry in high training, by a force under excellent generalship, and by one whose leaders appreciated the all-importance of London in the coming struggle.  The rebels left Bedford immediately, marched all that day, all the succeeding night, and early on the Sunday morning, 24th May, entered London, and by the northern gate.  Their entry was not even challenged.

From Bedford to St. Paul’s is—­as the crow flies—­between forty and fifty miles:  whatever road a man may take would make it nearer fifty than forty.  Bearing, as did this army, towards the east until it struck the Ermine Street, the whole march must have been well over fifty miles.

This fine feat was not a barren one:  it was well worth the effort and loss which it must have cost.  London could feed, recruit, and remount an army of even this magnitude with ease.  The Tower was held by a royal garrison, but it could do nothing against so great a town.

From London, as though the name of the city had a sort of national authority, the Barons, who now felt themselves to be hardly rebels but almost co-equals in a civil war, issued letters of mandate to others of their class and to their inferiors.  These letters were obeyed, not perhaps without some hesitation, but at any rate with a final obedience which turned the scale against the King.  John was now in a very distinct inferiority, and even of his personal attendants a considerable number left the Court on learning of the defection of London.  In all this long struggle nothing but the occupation of the capital had proved enough to make John feign a compromise.  As excellent an intriguer as he was a fighter he asked nothing better than to hear once more the terms of the Barons.

He proceeded to Windsor, asked for a parley, issued a safeguard to the emissaries of the Barons, and despatched this document upon the 8th June, giving it a validity of three days.  His enemies waited somewhat longer, perhaps in order to collect the more distant contingents, and named Runnymede—­a pasture upon the right bank of the Thames just above Staines—­as the place of meeting.

There are those who see in the derivation of the name “Runnymede” an ancient use of the meadow as a place of council.  This is, of course, mere conjecture, but at any rate it was, at this season of the year, a large, dry field, in which a considerable force could encamp.  The Barons marched along the old Roman military road, which is still the high-road to Staines from London, crossed the river, and encamped on Runnymede.  Here the Charta was presented, and probably, though not certainly, signed and sealed.  The local tradition ascribes the site of the actual signature to “Magna Charta” island—­an eyot just up-stream from the field, now called Runnymede, but neither in tradition nor in recorded history can this detail be fixed with any exactitude.  The Charta is given as from Runnymede upon the 15th June, and for the purpose of these pages what we have to note is that these two months of marching and fighting had ended upon the strategic point of Staines, and had clearly shown its relation to Windsor and to London.