rdon; and
at one blow he put the Earl of Kent out of his last suspense.

While the Queen was in France, she had found a lovely and good young
lady, named Philippa, who she thought would make an excellent wife for
her son. The young King married this lady, soon after he came to the
throne; and her first child, Edward, Prince of Wales, afterwards became
celebrated, as we shall presently see, under the famous title of EDWARD
THE BLACK PRINCE.

The young King, thinking the time ripe for the downfall of Mortimer, took
counsel with Lord Montacute how he should proceed. A Parliament was
going to be held at Nottingham, and that lord recommended that the
favourite should be seized by night in Nottingham Castle, where he was
sure to be. Now, this, like many other things, was more easily said than
done; because, to guard against treachery, the great gates of the Castle
were locked every night, and the great keys were carried up-stairs to the
Queen, who laid them under her own pillow. But the Castle had a
governor, and the governor being Lord Montacute's friend, confided to him
how he knew of a secret passage underground, hidden from observation by
the weeds and brambles with which it was overgrown; and how, through that
passage, the conspirators might enter in the dead of the night, and go
straight to Mortimer's room. Accordingly, upon a certain dark night, at
midnight, they made their way through this dismal place: startling the
rats, and frightening the owls and bats: and came safely to the bottom of
the main tower of the Castle, where the King met them, and took them up a
profoundly-dark staircase in a deep silence. They soon heard the voice
of Mortimer in council with some friends; and bursting into the room with
a sudden noise, took him prisoner. The Queen cried out from her
bed-chamber, 'Oh, my sweet son, my dear son, spare my gentle Mortimer!'
They carried him off, however; and, before the next Parliament, accused
him of having made differences between the young King and his mother, and
of having brought about the death of the Earl of Kent, and even of the
late King; for, as you know by this time, when they wanted to get rid of
a man in those old days, they were not very particular of what they
accused him. Mortimer was found guilty of all this, and was sentenced to
be hanged at Tyburn. The King shut his mother up in genteel confinement,
where she passed the rest of her life; and now he became King in earnest.

T