lunged
into the most inconsolable grief at the death of his son. The earl was
one of the most powerful nobles in the army, and, if he had undertaken
to avenge himself on Lord Holland, the whole expedition would perhaps
have been broken up into confusion. On the king's solemn assurance
that Holland would be punished, he was appeased for the time; but then
the Princess of Wales, Richard's mother, who was Lord Holland's
mother too, was thrown into the greatest state of anxiety and
distress. She implored Richard to save his brother's life. All the
other nobles and knights took sides too in the quarrel, and for a time
it seemed that the dissension would never be healed. Lord Holland, in
the mean while, fled to the church at Beverley, and took sanctuary
there. By the laws and customs of the time, they could not touch him
until he came voluntarily out.

Richard resisted all the entreaties of his mother to spare the
murderer's life until he found that her anxiety and distress were
preying upon her health so much that he feared that she would die. At
last, to save his mother's life, he promised that Holland should be
spared. But it was too late. His mother fell into a decline, and at
length died, as it was said, of a broken heart. What a dreadful death!
that of a mother worn out by the agony of long-continued and
apparently fruitless efforts to prevent one of her children from being
the executioner of another for the crime of murder.

Besides these fierce, deadly contests among the knights and nobles,
the ladies of the court had their feuds and quarrels too. They were
often divided into cliques and parties, and were full of envyings,
jealousies, and resentments against each other. One of the most
serious of these difficulties was occasioned by a marriage of the Duke
of Lancaster, which took place toward the close of his life. This was
his third marriage, he having been successively married to two ladies
of high rank before. The lady whom he now married was of a
comparatively humble station in life. She was the daughter of a
foreign knight. Her name, originally, was Catharine de Rouet. She had
been, in her early life, a maiden in attendance on the Duchess of
Lancaster, the duke's second wife. While she was in his family the
duke formed a guilty intimacy with her, which was continued for a long
time. They had three children. The duke provided well for these
children, and gave them a good education. After a time, the duke,
becom