ABSTRACT
Sampford was a homogeneous community composed almost entirely of farmers and labourers with a handful of tradesmen. Segar was certainly no labourer in the accepted sense. The wretched man rolled down the steps screaming for mercy, but other villagers gathered round and hacked him to pieces. When it was all over they began an unseemly argument over the bleeding corpse. The possibility of the trouble speading to Cornwall could have passed through the minds of some Privy Councillors, but no news was good news, and the punishments meted out to terrorists there scarcely 12 months since had evidently frightened it into submission. Carew called out that he carried the King’s commission to negotiate, but the rebels blankly refused to listen or to heed his warnings of the consequences of prolonging their resistance. Carew opened the proceedings, asking the three emissaries for an account of their negotiations and what had been agreed with the rebels.
