Page:The child's pictorial history of England; (IA childspictorialh00corn).pdf/91

 *ployment, and many turned robbers, to save themselves from starving; therefore, you see, it was not always a good thing, at first, for the bondmen to be set at liberty; but it was good in the end, for their children were born free, and, as times got better, the free middle classes began to be of some consequence, and have gone on gradually increasing in wealth and importance, till they have now become the best safeguard and support of the country.

17. While Richard was gone to the wars, his brother John, who was a very bad man, wanted to make himself king in England, and there were some of the nobles who encouraged him, while others defended the rights of the absent monarch; so that there was great confusion, and the laws were sadly disregarded.

18. At last, Richard heard of all these bad doings, and left the Holy Land, intending to come home as fast as he could; but, unfortunately, he was made prisoner, on his way, by the Duke of Austria, and confined in a castle in Germany for some time before the English people knew what had become of him.

19. Richard knew this duke was his enemy, because he had affronted him when in the Holy Land, so he had taken the precaution of disguising himself in passing through his dominions,