y, and tremble with all a mother's fears for the safety of
her son. She had placed Arthur under the care of William Desroches, the
seneschal of her palace, a man of mature age, of approved valor, and
devotedly attached to her family. This faithful servant threw himself,
with his young charge, into the fortress of Brest, where he for some
time defied the power of the English king.

But notwithstanding the brave resistance of the nobles and people of
Bretagne, they were obliged to submit to the conditions imposed by
Richard. By a treaty concluded in 1198, of which the terms are not
exactly known, Constance was delivered from her captivity, though not
from her husband; but in the following year, when the death of Richard
had restored her to some degree of independence, the first use she made
of it was to _divorce herself_ from Randal. She took this step with her
usual precipitancy, not waiting for the sanction of the Pope, as was the
custom in those days; and soon afterwards she gave her hand to Guy,
Count de Thouars, a man of courage and integrity, who for some time
maintained the cause of his wife and her son against the power of
England. Arthur was now fourteen, and the legitimate heir of all the
dominions of his uncle Richard. Constance placed him under the
guardianship of the king of France, who knighted the young prince with
his own hand, and solemnly swore to defend his rights against his
usurping uncle John.

It is at this moment that the play of King John opens; and history is
followed as closely as the dramatic form would allow, to the death of
John. The real fate of poor Arthur, after he had been abandoned by the
French, and had fallen into the hands of his uncle, is now ascertained;
but according to the chronicle from which Shakspeare drew his materials,
he was killed in attempting to escape from the castle of Falaise.
Constance did not live to witness this consummation of her calamities;
within a few months after Arthur was taken prisoner, in 1201, she died
suddenly, before she had attained her thirty-ninth year; but the cause
of her death is not specified.

Her eldest daughter Elinor, the legitimate heiress of England, Normandy,
and Bretagne, died in captivity; having been kept a prisoner in Bristol
Castle from the age of fifteen. She was at that time so beautiful, that
she was called proverbially, "La belle Bretonne," and by the English the
"Fair Maid of Brittany." She, like her brother Arthur, was sacrifi