FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109  
110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   >>   >|  
hich he was never to leave alive. The guilty fears of Henry were not unfounded; but perhaps the judicial murder of Lord Wiltshire at Bristol quickened the action of the little band, now again reduced to six. They met quietly at Oxford in December, to concert measures for King Richard's release and restoration, resolving that in case of his death they would support the title of March. But there was a seventh person present, whom it is incomprehensible that any of the six should have been willing to trust. This was Aumerle, vexed with the loss of his title, and always as ready to join a conspiracy at the outset as he was to play the traitor at the close. The extraordinary manner in which this man was always trusted afresh by the friends whom he perpetually betrayed, is one of the mysteries of psychological history. His plausibility and powers of fascination must have been marvellous. An agreement was drawn up, signed by the six, and entrusted to Aumerle (who cleverly slipped out of the inconvenience of signing it himself), containing promises to raise among them a force estimated at 8,000 archers and 300 lance-men, to meet on the fourth of January at Kingston, and thence march to Colnbrook, where Aumerle was to join them. On the day appointed for the meeting at Kingston, Aumerle, attired in a handsome furred gown, went to dine with his father. The Duchess appears to have been absent. Aumerle carried the perilous agreement in his bosom, and when he sat down to dinner, he pulled it forth, and ostentatiously placed it by the side of his silver plate. The six seals caught the old Duke's eye, as his son intended they should; and his curiosity was not unnaturally aroused. "What is that, fair son?" inquired his father. Aumerle ceremoniously took off his hat--then always worn at dinner--and bowed low. "Monseigneur," said he obsequiously, "it is not for you." Of course, after that, York was determined to see it. "Show it me!" he said impatiently; "I will know what it is." Aumerle must have laughed in his traitor heart, as with feigned reluctance he handed the document to his father. York read it through; and then rose from the table with one of his stormy bursts of anger. "Saddle the horses!" he shouted forth to the grooms at the lower end of the hall. And, turning to his son,--"Ha, thou thief! False traitor! thou wert false to King Richard; well might it be looked for that thou shouldst be false to t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   109  
110   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Aumerle

 

traitor

 

father

 

dinner

 

Kingston

 
agreement
 

Richard

 

silver

 

pulled

 
ostentatiously

caught

 
unnaturally
 

aroused

 

curiosity

 

intended

 

attired

 

handsome

 

furred

 

meeting

 

appointed


perilous

 

carried

 

absent

 

shouldst

 

Duchess

 

looked

 

appears

 

ceremoniously

 

impatiently

 

determined


bursts

 
stormy
 

document

 

feigned

 

reluctance

 
handed
 

laughed

 

Colnbrook

 

Monseigneur

 

turning


horses

 

Saddle

 

shouted

 

obsequiously

 

grooms

 

inquired

 
resolving
 

support

 

restoration

 

release