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 ISABELLA OF VALOIS. • 157 pared for such a revelation that he would not at first believe it, till the arrival of the Duke of York and the sight of the paper convinced him. This discovery compelled the conspirators to hasten their measures, and, accordingly, attired one Magdalen (an attend- ant of Richard's, who bore a most extraordinary resemblance to him) in royal robes, they declared that it was the deposed king escaped from his prison ; and appealing to the people to defend the cause of their rightful sovereign, a body was soon raised of a force that caused the usurper to tremble. They pro- ceeded forthwith to Windsor, hoping to surprise and seize Henry before he could make his escape, which, however, he had accomplished a few hours before their arrival, and had pro- ceeded to London, where, assembling an army, he went to meet Richard's party at Hounslow, believing it would advance toward the capital. The conspirators learning this, and not wishing to risk a battle, took the route to Colebrook, where they imagined the young queen to be ; but finding she was at Sunning Hill, they marched thither, informing her that her hus- band had escaped, and was coming with an army to meet her! Enchanted at this joyful intelligence, Isabella set out with the chiefs of the party, and accompanied them to Cirencester, where, by a want of proper precautions on their own side, and a ruse of the mayor, the whole body were betrayed into the hands of their enemies and Surrey and Salisbury were decapitated on the spot by order of the mayor. The fair young queen, thus cruelly deceived and disappointed, was also made prisoner, and kept in close confinement at Haveringatte-Bower, where she remained until her father, who had confirmed to Henry the truce of twenty-eight years made with Richard, demanded that she should be sent back to France — a demand to which Henry replied by asking her in marriage for the Prince of Wales. Faithful, however, to the memory of her noble hus- band Isabella entirely refused to listen to the pleadings of her gallant suitor, Henry of Monmouth, who seems to have been as much influenced by personal admiration of ^he fair virgin widow as by political motives in his pursuit of her. Her own fixed determination against the match, joined to certain objections on the part of her royal relatives in France, at length compelled Henry to restore her to them, which he did the more unwillingly, that it raised a question relative to the return of her jewels and dower, which question was long and