stle of Chalus, near Limoges, in order to
make him comply with his demand.[*] The garrison offered to surrender;
but the king replied, that since he had taken the pains to come thither
and besiege the place in person, he would take it by force, and would
hang every one of them. The same day Richard, accompanied by Marcadee,
leader of his Brabancons, approached the castle in order to survey it,
when one Bertrand de Gourdon, an archer, took aim at him, and pierced
his shoulder with an arrow. The king, however, gave orders for the
assault, took the place, and hanged all the garrison, except Gourdon,
who had wounded him, and whom he reserved for a more deliberate and more
cruel execution.[**]

The wound was not in itself dangerous; but the unskilfulness of the
surgeon made it mortal; he so rankled Richard's shoulder in pulling out
the arrow, that a gangrene ensued; and that prince was now sensible that
his life was drawing towards a period. He sent for Gourdon, and asked
him, "Wretch, what have I ever done to you, to oblige you to seek my
life?" "What have you done to me?" replied coolly the prisoner: "you
killed with your own hands my father, and my two brothers; and you
intended to have hanged myself: I am now in your power, and you may take
revenge by inflicting on me the most severe torments; but I shall endure
them all with pleasure, provided I can think that I have been so happy
as to rid the world of such a nuisance,"[***] Richard, struck with the
reasonableness of this reply, and humbled by the near approach of death,
ordered Gourdon to be set at liberty, and a sum of money to be given
him; but Marcadee, unknown to him, seized the unhappy man, flayed him
alive, and then hanged him. Richard died in the tenth year of his reign,
and the forty-second of his age; and he left no issue behind him.

[* Hoveden, p. 791. Knyghton, p. 2413.]

[** Hoveden, p. 791. Knyghton, p. 2413.]

[*** Hoveden, p. 791. Brompton, p. 1277 Knyghton,
p. 2413.]

The most shining part of this prince's character are his military
talents. No man, even in that romantic age, carried personal courage
and intrepidity to a greater height, and this quality gained him the
appellation of the Lion-hearted, "Coeur de Lion." He passionately loved
glory, chiefly military glory; and as his conduct in the field was not
inferior to his valor, he seems to have possessed every talent
necessary for acquiring it. His resentments also were hig