ll ripe: my Lord of Kent was
gent, good, and sweet of nature, and he did little against him--only to
consort with my said Lord of Lancaster: yet the Mortimer hated my Lord
of Kent far worser than my Lord of Lancaster, and never stayed till he
had undone him. Alas for that stately stag of ten, for the cur pulled
him down and worried him!

My Lord of Kent, as I writ afore, had dust cast in his eyes by the
Queen. He met her on her landing, and marched with her, truly believing
that the King (as she told him) was in thrall to the old and young Sir
Hugh Le Despenser, and that she was come to deliver him. Nought less
than his brother's murder tare open his sealed eyes. Then he woke up,
and aswhasay looked about him, as a man roughly wakened that scarce hath
his full sense. Bitter was his lamentation, and very sooth his
penitence, when he saw the verity of the matter. Now right as this was
the case with him, the Queen and the Mortimer, having taken counsel
thereon, (for they feared he should take some step that should do them a
mischief), resolved to entangle him. They spread a rumour, taking good
care it should not escape his ears, that King Edward his brother yet
lived, and was a prisoner in Corfe Castle. He, hearing this, quickly
despatched one of his chaplains, named Friar Thomas Dunhead, a
Predicant--for all the Predicants were on the King's side--to see if the
report were as it was said: and Sir John Deveroil, then Keeper of the
Castle, having before his instructions, took the Friar within, seeming
nothing loth, and showed unto him the appearance of a king seated at
supper in hall, with his sewers [waiters] and other officers about him.
This all had been bowned [prepared] afore, of purpose to deceive my Lord
of Kent, and one chosen to present [represented] the King that was like
enough to him in face and stature to pass well. On this hearing went my
Lord of Kent with all speed to Avignon, to take counsel with Pope John
[John Twenty-Two] who commended him for his good purpose to deliver his
brother, and bade him effect the same by all means in his power:
moreover, the said Pope promised himself to bear all charges--which was
a wise deed of the holy Father, for my Lord of Kent was he that could
never keep money in his pocket, but it flowed out of all sides. Then my
Lord returned back, and took counsel with divers how to effect the same.
Many an one promised him help--among other, the Archbishop of York, and
the L