ther peers came
in turn, but their faces are not visible in the remarkable painting by
an eye-witness from which those above are described, with the exception
of the tellers, the traitor Northumberland, and the cheery round-faced
Westmoreland. These went round to take the votes of the peers. There
were not likely to be many dissenting voices, where to vote No was
death.

Henry stated his assumption of power to rest upon three points. First,
he had conquered the kingdom; secondly, his cousin, King Richard, had
voluntarily abdicated in his favour; and lastly, he was the true heir
male of the crown.

"Ha!" said the little Earl of March, the dispossessed heir general,
"_haeres malus_, is he?"

It was not a bad pun for seven years old.

If Henry of Bolingbroke may be credited, the majority of the loyal six,
and Thomas Le Despenser among them, not only sat in his first
Parliament, but pleaded compulsion as the cause of their petition
against Gloucester, and consented to the deposition of King Richard,
while some earnestly requested the usurper to put the Sovereign to
death. While some of these allegations are true, the last certainly is
false. One of those named as having joined in the last petition is
Surrey; and his alleged participation is proved to be a lie. Knowing
how lightly Henry of Bolingbroke could lie, it is hardly possible to
believe otherwise of any member of the group, except indeed the
time-serving Aumerle.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. See "Mistress Margery," preface, page six.

Note 2. His mother, Alianora of Lancaster, was the daughter of Earl
Henry, son of Prince Edmund, son of Henry the Third.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.

"Long since we parted!
I to life's stormy wave--
Thou to thy quiet grave,
Leal and true-hearted!"

The first regnal act of Henry the Eighth was to strip the loyal lords of
the titles conferred upon them just two years before. Once more,
Aumerle became Earl of Rutland; Surrey, Earl of Kent Exeter, Earl of
Huntingdon; Wiltshire, Sir William Le Scrope; and Gloucester, Lord Le
Despenser.

Hitherto, King Richard had been imprisoned in the Tower, a lonely
captive. But now, possessed by jealous fears of insurrection and
restoration, the usurper hurried his royal prisoner from dungeon to
dungeon:--to Leeds Castle, Pickering, Knaresborough, and lastly, about
the middle of December, to Pomfret, w