Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 1.djvu/18

 on beheading one of the rioters, and Northampton's being taken into cuſtod,, the commotion ſubſided. Strict ſearch was made after Chaucer, who eſcaped into Hainault; afterwards he went to France, and finding the king reſolute to get him into his hands, he fled from thence to Zealand. Several accom- plices in this affair were with him, whom he ſup- prted in their exile, while the chief ringleaders, (except Northampton who was condemned at Rea- ding upon the evidence of his clerk) had reſtored themſelves to court favour by acknowledging their crime, and now forgot the integrity and reſolution of Chaucer, who ſuffered exile to ſecure their ſecrets; and ſo monſtrouſly ungrateful were they, that they wiſhed his death, and by keeping ſupplies of mo- ney from him, endeavoured to effect it;——While he expended his fortune in removing from place to place, and in ſupporting his fellow exiles, ſo far from receiving any aſſiſtance from England, his apartments were let, and the money received for rent was never acccountedaccounted [sic] for to him ; nor could le recover any from thoſe who owed it him, they Leing of opinion it was impoſſible for him ever to return to his own country. The government ſtill purſuing their reſentment againſt him and his friends, they were obliged to leave Zealand, and Chaucer being unable to bear longer the cala- mities of poverty and exile, and finding no ſecu- rity wherever he fled, choſe rather to throw him- ſelf upon the laws of his country, than periſh a- broad by hunger and oppreſſion. He had not long returned till he was arreſted by order of the king, and confined in the tower of London. The court ſometimes flattered him with the return of the royal favour if he would impeach his accom- plices, and ſometimes threatened him with im- mediate deſtruction; their threats and promiſes he along while diſregarded, but recollecting the ingratitude of his old friends, and the miſeries