ve adherence by a grant of a thousand
pounds. The Duke of Lancaster, who was not his brother's tool, was
quietly disposed of for the moment, by making him so exceedingly
uncomfortable, that with the miserable _laisser-aller_, which was the
bane of his fine character, he went home to enjoy himself as a country
gentleman, leaving politics to take care of themselves.

But an incident happened which disconcerted for a moment the plans of
the Regent. The young King, without consulting his powerful uncle,
declared his second cousin, Roger Mortimer, Earl of March, heir
presumptive of England, and--in obedience to a previous suggestion of
the Princess--broke off March's engagement with a lady of the Arundel
family, and married him to Richard's own niece, the Lady Alianora de
Holand.

The annoyance to Gloucester, consisted in two points: first, that it
recognised female inheritance and representation, which put him a good
deal further from the throne; and secondly, that Roger Mortimer, owing
to the education received from his Montacute grandmother, had stepped
out of his family ranks, and was the sole Lollard ever known in the
House of March.

Gloucester carried his trouble to his confessor. The appointed heir to
the throne a Lollard!--nor only that, but married to a grand-daughter of
the Lollard Princess, a niece of the semi-Lollard King! What was to be
done to save England to Catholicism?

Sir Thomas de Arundel laughed a low, quiet laugh in answer.

"What matters all that, my Lord? Is not Alianora my sister's daughter?
The lad is young, yielding, lazy, and lusty [self-indulgent,
pleasure-loving.] Leave all to me."

Arundel saw further than the Princess had done.

And Gloucester was Arundel's slave. Item by item he worked the will of
his master, and no one suspected for a moment whither those acts were
tending. The obnoxious, politically-Lollard Duke of Lancaster was
shunted out of the way, by being induced to undertake a voyage to
Castilla for the recovery of the inheritance of his wife Constanca and
her sister Isabel; a statute was passed conferring plenipotentiary
powers on "our dearest uncle of Gloucester;" all vacant offices under
the Crown were filled with orthodox nominees of the Regent; the Lollard
Earl of Suffolk was impeached; a secret meeting was held at Huntingdon,
when Gloucester and four other nobles solemnly renounced their
allegiance to the King, and declared themselves at liberty to do what
was