is day, with an ancient
coat of mail, a helmet, and a pair of gauntlets hanging from a beam above
it, which most people like to believe were once worn by the Black Prince.

King Edward did not outlive his renowned son, long. He was old, and one
Alice Perrers, a beautiful lady, had contrived to make him so fond of her
in his old age, that he could refuse her nothing, and made himself
ridiculous. She little deserved his love, or--what I dare say she valued
a great deal more--the jewels of the late Queen, which he gave her among
other rich presents. She took the very ring from his finger on the
morning of the day when he died, and left him to be pillaged by his
faithless servants. Only one good priest was true to him, and attended
him to the last.

Besides being famous for the great victories I have related, the reign of
King Edward the Third was rendered memorable in better ways, by the
growth of architecture and the erection of Windsor Castle. In better
ways still, by the rising up of WICKLIFFE, originally a poor parish
priest: who devoted himself to exposing, with wonderful power and
success, the ambition and corruption of the Pope, and of the whole church
of which he was the head.

Some of those Flemings were induced to come to England in this reign too,
and to settle in Norfolk, where they made better woollen cloths than the
English had ever had before. The Order of the Garter (a very fine thing
in its way, but hardly so important as good clothes for the nation) also
dates from this period. The King is said to have picked 'up a lady's
garter at a ball, and to have said, _Honi soit qui mal y pense_--in
English, 'Evil be to him who evil thinks of it.' The courtiers were
usually glad to imitate what the King said or did, and hence from a
slight incident the Order of the Garter was instituted, and became a
great dignity. So the story goes.

CHAPTER XIX--ENGLAND UNDER RICHARD THE SECOND

Richard, son of the Black Prince, a boy eleven years of age, succeeded to
the Crown under the title of King Richard the Second. The whole English
nation were ready to admire him for the sake of his brave father. As to
the lords and ladies about the Court, they declared him to be the most
beautiful, the wisest, and the best--even of princes--whom the lords and
ladies about the Court, generally declare to be the most beautiful, the
wisest, and the best of mankind. To flatter a poor boy in this base
manner was not a v