him."

Poor Berengaria was very illy rewarded for the devotion which she had
manifested to her husband's interests, and for the efforts she had
made to secure his release. She had come home from Rome a short time
before her husband arrived, but he, when he came, manifested no
interest in rejoining her. Instead of that, he connected himself with
a number of wicked associates, both male and female, whom he had known
before he went to the Holy Land, and lived a life of open profligacy
with them, leaving Berengaria to pine in neglect, alone and forsaken.
She was almost heart-broken to be thus abandoned, and several of the
principal ecclesiastics of the kingdom remonstrated very strongly with
Richard for this wicked conduct. But these remonstrances were of no
avail. Richard abandoned himself more and more to drunkenness and
profligacy, until at length his character became truly infamous.

One day in 1195, when he was hunting in the forest of Normandy, he was
met by a hermit, who boldly expostulated with him on account of the
wickedness of his life. The hermit told him that, by the course he was
pursuing, he was grievously offending God, and that, unless he stopped
short in his course and repented of his sins, he was doomed to be
brought very soon to a miserable end by a special judgment from
heaven.

The king pretended not to pay much attention to this prophecy, but not
long afterward he was suddenly seized with a severe illness, and then
he became exceedingly alarmed. He sent for all the monks and priests
within ten miles around to come to him, and began to confess his sins
with apparently very deep compunction for them, and begged them to
pray for God's forgiveness. He promised them solemnly that, if God
would spare his life, he would return to Berengaria, and thenceforth
be a true and faithful husband to her as long as he lived.

He recovered from his sickness, and he so far kept the vows which he
had made as to seek a reconciliation with Berengaria, and to live with
her afterward, ostensibly at least, on good terms.

For three years after this Richard was engaged in wars with Philip
chiefly on the frontiers between France and Normandy. At last, in the
midst of this contest, he suddenly came to his death under
circumstances of a remarkable character. He had heard that a peasant
in the territory of one of his barons, named Videmar, in plowing in
the field, had come upon a trap-door in the ground which covered and
co