y when it came to the end. It was near midnight when he died, and at
that hour, they terribly report, the wind sprang up and howled about the
turrets of Chinon, as if all hell was out hunting for that which he had
promised them. But, if the truth must be told, he had never kept his
promises, and there is no reason to suppose that he kept that one
either. Milo adds, So died this great, puissant, and terrible king,
cursing his children, cursed in them, as they in him. All power was
given over to him from his birth, save one only, power over himself. He
was indeed a slave more wretched than those hinds, _glebae ascriptitii_,
whom at a distance he ruled in his lands: he was slave of his baser
parts. With God he was always at war, and with God's elect. What of
blessed Thomas? Let Thomas answer on the Last Day. I deny him none of
his properties; he was open-handed, open-minded, as bold as a lion. But
his vices ate him up. Peace be with the man; he was a mighty king. He
left a wife in prison, two sons in arms against him, and many bastards.'

As soon as he was dead his people came about like flies and despoiled
the Castle of Chinon, the bed where he lay (smiling grimly, as if death
had made him a cynic), his very body of the rings on its fingers, the
gold circlet, the Christ round his neck. Such flagrancy was the penalty
of death, who had made himself too cheap in those days; nor were there
any left with him who might have said, Honour my dead father, or dead
master. William the Marshal had gone to Rouen, afraid of Richard;
Geoffrey was half way to Angers after treasure; the Bishop of Durham
(for purposes) had hastened off to Poictiers to be the first to hail the
new King. All that remained faithful in that den of thieves were a
couple of poor girls with whom the old sinner had lately had to do.
Seeing he was left naked on his bed, one of these--Nicolete her name
was, from Harfleur--touched the other on the shoulder--Kentish Mall they
called her--and said, 'They have robbed our master of so much as a shirt
to be buried in. What shall we do?'

Mall said, 'If we are found with him we shall be hanged, sure enough.
Yet the old man was kind to me.'

'And to me he was kind,' said Nicolete, 'God wot.'

Then they looked at each other. 'Well?' said Nicolete. And Mall, 'What
you do I will do.' So they kissed together, knowing it was a gallows
matter, and went in to the dead body of the King. They washed it
tenderly, and anointed it,