Prince John had reason to fear his brother, for he had been a traitor to
him in his captivity. He had secretly joined the French King; had vowed
to the English nobles and people that his brother was dead; and had
vainly tried to seize the crown. He was now in France, at a place called
Evreux. Being the meanest and basest of men, he contrived a mean and
base expedient for making himself acceptable to his brother. He invited
the French officers of the garrison in that town to dinner, murdered them
all, and then took the fortress. With this recommendation to the good
will of a lion-hearted monarch, he hastened to King Richard, fell on his
knees before him, and obtained the intercession of Queen Eleanor. 'I
forgive him,' said the King, 'and I hope I may forget the injury he has
done me, as easily as I know he will forget my pardon.'

While King Richard was in Sicily, there had been trouble in his dominions
at home: one of the bishops whom he had left in charge thereof, arresting
the other; and making, in his pride and ambition, as great a show as if
he were King himself. But the King hearing of it at Messina, and
appointing a new Regency, this LONGCHAMP (for that was his name) had fled
to France in a woman's dress, and had there been encouraged and supported
by the French King. With all these causes of offence against Philip in
his mind, King Richard had no sooner been welcomed home by his
enthusiastic subjects with great display and splendour, and had no sooner
been crowned afresh at Winchester, than he resolved to show the French
King that the Devil was unchained indeed, and made war against him with
great fury.

There was fresh trouble at home about this time, arising out of the
discontents of the poor people, who complained that they were far more
heavily taxed than the rich, and who found a spirited champion in WILLIAM
FITZ-OSBERT, called LONGBEARD. He became the leader of a secret society,
comprising fifty thousand men; he was seized by surprise; he stabbed the
citizen who first laid hands upon him; and retreated, bravely fighting,
to a church, which he maintained four days, until he was dislodged by
fire, and run through the body as he came out. He was not killed,
though; for he was dragged, half dead, at the tail of a horse to
Smithfield, and there hanged. Death was long a favourite remedy for
silencing the people's advocates; but as we go on with this history, I
fancy we shall find them difficult to mak