e. In the mean time, as Gaveston had only sworn to leave
_England_, the king sent him to Ireland, and made him governor general
of that country, and there Gaveston lived in greater power and
splendor than ever.

At length, in little more than a year, Gaveston came back. His oath
not to return was disposed of by means of a dispensation which King
Edward obtained for him from the Pope, absolving him from the
obligation of it. When he was reinstated in the king's court he
behaved more scandalously than ever. He revenged himself upon the
nobles who had been the means of sending him away by ridiculing them
and giving them nicknames. One of them he called Joseph the Jew,
because his face was pale and thin, and bore, in some respects, a
Jewish expression. Another, the Earl of Warwick, he called the Black
Dog of Ardenne. When the earl heard of this, he said, clenching his
fist, "Very well; I'll make him feel the Black Dog's teeth yet."

In a word, the nobles were excited to the greatest pitch of rage and
indignation against the favorite, and, after various struggles and
contentions between them and the king, they at length broke out into
an open revolt. The king at this time, with Gaveston and his wife,
were at Newcastle, which is in the north of England. The barons fell
upon him here with the intention of seizing Gaveston. Both the king
and Gaveston, however, succeeded in making their escape. Gaveston fled
to a castle, and shut himself up there. The king escaped by sea,
leaving his wife behind, at the mercy of the conspirators. The barons
treated the queen with respect, but they pressed on at once in pursuit
of Gaveston. They laid siege to the castle where he sought refuge.
Finding that the castle could not hold out long, Gaveston thought it
best to surrender while it yet remained in his power to make terms
with his enemies; so he agreed to give himself up, they stipulating
that they would do him no bodily harm, but only confine him, and that
the place of his confinement should be one of his own castles.

When he came down into the court-yard of the castle, after signing
this stipulation, he found there ready to receive him the Earl of
Warwick, the man to whom he had given the nickname of the Black Dog of
Ardenne. The earl was at the head of a large force. He immediately
took Gaveston into custody, and galloped off with him at the head of
his troop to his own castle. The engraving represents a view of this
fortress as it ap