peared in those days.

When they had got Gaveston safe into this castle, the chiefs held a
sort of council of war to determine what should be done with their
prisoner. While they were consulting on the subject, intending
apparently to spare his life as they had agreed, some one called out,

"It has cost you a great deal of trouble to catch the fox, and now, if
you let him go, you will have a great deal more trouble in hunting him
again."

This consideration decided them; so they took the terrified prisoner,
and, in spite of his piteous cries for mercy, they hurried him away to
a solitary place a mile or two from the castle, and there, on a little
knoll by the side of the road, they cut off his head.

[Illustration: WARWICK CASTLE.]

One would have supposed that by this time the king would have been cured
of the folly of devoting himself to favorites, but he was not. He
mourned over the death of Gaveston at first with bitter grief, and when
this first paroxysm of his sorrow was passed, it was succeeded with a
still more bitter spirit of revenge. He immediately took the field
against his rebellious barons, and a furious civil war ensued. He soon,
too, found a new favorite, or, rather, two favorites. They were
brothers, and their names were Spencer. They are called in history the
Spencers, or the Despensers. The quarrels and wars which took place
between the king and these favorites on one hand, and the barons and
nobles on the other, were continued for many years. The queen took sides
with the nobles against her husband and the Spencers. She fled to
France, and there formed an intimacy with a young nobleman named
Mortimer, who joined himself to her, and thenceforth accompanied her and
made common cause with her against her husband. With this Mortimer she
raised an army, and, sailing from Flanders, she landed in England. On
landing, she summoned the barons to join her, and took the field against
her husband. The king was beaten in this war, and fled again on board a
vessel, intending to make his escape by sea. The two Spencers, one after
the other, were taken prisoners, and both were hung on gibbets fifty
feet high. They were hung in their armor, and after they were dead their
bodies were taken down and treated as it was customary to treat the
bodies of traitors.[A]

[Footnote A: In cases of treason the condemned man was first
disemboweled; then his head was taken off; then the body was cut into
quarters. The head a