hrough the doors, and, ransacking all the
rooms, tore and broke every thing to pieces, and threw the fragments
out at the windows. They found a man dressed as a priest, whom they
took to be Lord Percy in disguise, and they killed him on the spot.

The murdered man was not Lord Percy, however, but a priest in his own
proper dress. Lord Percy and the duke were just preparing to sit down
to dinner quietly together in another place, when a messenger came
breathless and informed them what was going on. They immediately fled.
They ran to the water-side, got into a boat, and rowed themselves over
to Kennington, a place on the southern side of the river, nearly
opposite to Westminster, where the young Prince Richard and his mother
were then residing; for all this took place just before King Richard's
grandfather died.

The lord-mayor and aldermen of London were greatly alarmed when they
heard of this riot, and of the excesses which the citizens of London
had committed. They were afraid that the Duke of Lancaster, whose
influence and power they knew was already very great, and which would
probably become vastly greater on the death of the king, would hold
them responsible for it. So they went in a body to Richmond, where the
king was lying sick, and made very humble apologies for the
indignities which had been offered to the duke, and they promised to
do all in their power to punish the transgressors. The king was,
however, too far gone to pay much attention to this embassy. The mayor
and aldermen then sent a deputation to Prince Richard at Kennington,
to declare their good-will to him, and their readiness to accept him
as their sovereign upon the death of his grandfather, and to promise
faithful allegiance to him on their own part individually, and on the
part of the city of London. They hoped by this means to conciliate the
good opinion of Richard and of his mother, as well as of the other
friends around him, and prepare them to judge leniently of their case
when it should come before them.

All this, as has already been remarked, took place just before King
Edward's death. Immediately after his death Richard and his mother
went to Richmond, and took up their residence in the palace where
Edward died. On the next day a deputation was sent to the mayor and
aldermen of London in Richard's name, calling upon them to appear at
Richmond before the king, together with the Duke of Lancaster and his
friends, in order that both side