which threw the whole city of
London into a state of alarm. Beaufort alleged that Gloucester had
formed a plan to seize the person of the king and take him away from
Beaufort's custody; and that he had designs, moreover, on Beaufort's
life. To defend himself, and to prevent Gloucester from coming to the
palace where he was residing, he seized and fortified the passages
leading to the bridge. He built barricades, and took down the chains
of the portcullis, and assembled a large armed force to guard the
point. The people of London were in great alarm. They set watches day
and night to protect their property from the anticipated violence of
the soldiers and partisans of the combatants, and thus all was
commotion and fear. Of course there were no courts of justice powerful
enough to control such a contest as this, and finally the people sent
off a delegation to the Duke of Bedford in France, imploring him to
come to England immediately and see if he could not settle the
quarrel.

[Sidenote: Bedford summoned home from France.]

The Duke of Bedford came. A Parliament was convened, and the questions
at issue between the two great disputants were brought to a solemn
trial. The Duke of Gloucester made out a series of heavy charges
against the cardinal, and the cardinal made a formal reply which
contained not only his defense, but also counter charges against the
duke. These papers were drawn up with great technicality and ceremony
by the lawyers employed on each side to manage the case, and were
submitted to the Duke of Bedford and to the Parliament. A series of
debates ensued, in which the friends of the two parties respectively
brought criminations and recriminations against each other without
end. The result was, as is usual in such cases, that both sides
appeared to have been to blame, and in order to settle the dispute a
sort of compromise was effected, with which both parties professed to
be satisfied, and a reconciliation, or what outwardly appeared to be
such, was made. A new division of powers and prerogatives between
Gloucester, as Protector of England, and Beaufort, as custodian of the
king, was arranged, and peace being thus restored, Bedford went back
again to France.

[Sidenote: Death of Bedford.]

Things went on tolerably well after this for many years; that is,
there were no more open outbreaks, though the old jealousy and hatred
between Gloucester and the cardinal still continued. The influence of
the Duk