Page:The Queens of England.djvu/182

 154 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. which always testified the warmest attachment toward him, but would notice none else. While Richard and Lancaster were standing together in the courtyard, the dog, escaping, flew not to the king, but to Henry, caressing him, and placing his fore- paws on his shoulders, as he had been wont to do with his un- happy master. Lancaster, surprised at this affection, asked the king the meaning of it. Richard replied : "Cousin, it means a great deal for you, and very little for me." "How?" said the duke ; "pray explain it." "I understand by it," said the unfortunate king, "that this, my favorite greyhound, Math, fondles and pays his court to you this day as king of England, which you will be, and I shall be deposed, for that the natural instinct of the creature perceives. Keep him, therefore, by your side ; for lo, he leaveth me, and will ever follow you." The king, with the Earl of Salisbury, the Bishop of Carlisle, Sir Stephen Scrope, and two other of his chief officers, were mounted on three sorry jades, all together worth scarce forty shillings, and led to Chester, where he was forced that very night to sign commissions appointing Sir Peter Courtney to be captain of Calais, John Norbury, governor of Guisnes, and others to the like commands and trusts in the fortresses of the marches toward Picardie." And now was every means tried to slander and blacken the unfortunate Richard, in order to overcome the feeling of affec- tion still entertained for him by the common people. They even declared, to destroy the prestige of his birth, that he was not the son of the Black Prince and gave forth a hundred calumnies, as vile as they were absurd ; but there was still so much attachment felt for him that his rescue was frequently attempted, and once he very nearly escaped, near Coventry, after which he was "guarded like a felon." "In this manner, mounted on a little nag, and without chang- ing his clothes, he was brought, on Saturday, August 30, to St. Alban's, and from thence, the Monday following, to Westmin- ster, where he lay for one night in his palace, and was carried the next day to the Tower of London." During these events the queen was hastily moved from one spot to another, and was at last lodged in Leeds Castle, under the care of the Duchess of Ireland. Here she met her former governess and principal lady of honor, Lady de Coucy, sister