Page:The Queens of England.djvu/77

 ELEANOR OF AOUITAINE. 63 strain of denunciation, like the voice of an oracle foretelling woe. "The time of dispersion is at hand, as the apostles pre- dicted, when the Son of perdition shall be revealed ; the peril- ous times draw on, when the seamless garment of Christ will be rent, the net of Peter torn, and the strength of catholic unity dissolved. These are the beginnings of evil ; we feel heavily, for we fear heavier things. No prophetess, nor the daughter of a prophet am I ; yet grief urges me to say many things ; but these words have escaped me, which that grief suggested, and they are written interrupted by sighs, and with a soul absorbed in woe !" At length, whether by the interference of the pope or the cupidity of the emperor, who preferred a large ransom to a captive king, Richard communicated to his mother that for the sum of 100,000 marks his liberation might be obtained. Immense as the sum was, Eleanor immediately set about to raise it ; a tax was levied on every knight's fee ; a vast amount of the treasures of the Church were disposed of ; she contrib- uted of her own wealth, and drained the resources of Aquitaine, and at length possessed of the greater part of the amount, and attended by the Archbishop of Rouen, a little before Christ- mas, set out for Mayence. There, on the feast of the Puri- fication, Eleanor received her captive son from the hands of the Archbishops of Cologne, in the presence of the emperor and all his assembled nobles. "The king being thus liberated," says the chronicle, "all the bystanders wept for joy;" and so they departed. On the 20th of March, King Richard and his mother arrived in England. John had been in arms against him, and Rich- ard's first feelings toward him were as to a traitor who deserved death ; but the aged mother, in whose purified heart mercy now held sway, rather than vengeance, so influenced John, that he met his brother only as a penitent, kneeling at his feet, and beseeching forgiveness. Richard extended his hand in token of pardon, saying, sorrowfully, "I would that I might as soon forget thy offense, as thou wilt forget my for- giveness." Not much is known of Queen Eleanor through several of the succeeding years. Richard was but little in England, where his mother still governed as his regent ; and, according to the historian of the time, she must have governed wisely, for he says she was exceedingly loved and respected by all people.