l right to the crown, as you know, was in this King. Edward
Mortimer, the young Earl of March--who was only eight or nine years old,
and who was descended from the Duke of Clarence, the elder brother of
Henry's father--was, by succession, the real heir to the throne. However,
the King got his son declared Prince of Wales; and, obtaining possession
of the young Earl of March and his little brother, kept them in
confinement (but not severely) in Windsor Castle. He then required the
Parliament to decide what was to be done with the deposed King, who was
quiet enough, and who only said that he hoped his cousin Henry would be
'a good lord' to him. The Parliament replied that they would recommend
his being kept in some secret place where the people could not resort,
and where his friends could not be admitted to see him. Henry
accordingly passed this sentence upon him, and it now began to be pretty
clear to the nation that Richard the Second would not live very long.

It was a noisy Parliament, as it was an unprincipled one, and the Lords
quarrelled so violently among themselves as to which of them had been
loyal and which disloyal, and which consistent and which inconsistent,
that forty gauntlets are said to have been thrown upon the floor at one
time as challenges to as many battles: the truth being that they were all
false and base together, and had been, at one time with the old King, and
at another time with the new one, and seldom true for any length of time
to any one. They soon began to plot again. A conspiracy was formed to
invite the King to a tournament at Oxford, and then to take him by
surprise and kill him. This murderous enterprise, which was agreed upon
at secret meetings in the house of the Abbot of Westminster, was betrayed
by the Earl of Rutland--one of the conspirators. The King, instead of
going to the tournament or staying at Windsor (where the conspirators
suddenly went, on finding themselves discovered, with the hope of seizing
him), retired to London, proclaimed them all traitors, and advanced upon
them with a great force. They retired into the west of England,
proclaiming Richard King; but, the people rose against them, and they
were all slain. Their treason hastened the death of the deposed monarch.
Whether he was killed by hired assassins, or whether he was starved to
death, or whether he refused food on hearing of his brothers being killed
(who were in that plot), is very doubtful. He me