of Guienne to his son,
now thirteen years of age; and that the prince should come to Paris,
and do the homage which every vassal owed to his superior lord. This
expedient, which seemed so happily to remove all difficulties, was
immediately embraced: Spenser was charmed with the contrivance: young
Edward was sent to Paris: and the ruin covered under this fatal snare,
was never perceived or suspected by any of the English council.

The queen, on her arrival in France, had there found a great number of
English fugitives, the remains of the Lancastrian faction; and
their common hatred of Spenser soon begat a secret friendship and
correspondence between them and that princess. Among the rest was
young Roger Mortimer, a potent baron in the Welsh marches, who had been
obliged, with others, to make his submissions to the king, had been
condemned for high treason; but having received a pardon for his life,
was afterwards detained in the Tower, with an intention of rendering his
confinement perpetual, He was so fortunate as to make his escape into
France;[*] and being one of the most considerable persons now remaining
of the party, as well as distinguished by his violent animosity against
Spenser, he was easily admitted to pay his court to Queen Isabella. The
graces of his person and address advanced him quickly in her affections:
he became her confident and counsellor in all her measures; and gaining
ground daily upon her heart, he engaged her to sacrifice at last, to her
passion, all the sentiments of honor and of fidelity to her husband.[**]

* Rymer, vol. iv. p. 7, 8, 20. T. de la More, p. 596.
Walsing.[** unclear] p. 120. Ypoa. Neust. p. 506.

** T. de la More, p. 598. Murimuth, p. 65.

Hating now the man whom she had injured, and whom she never valued, she
entered ardently into all Mortimer's conspiracies; and having artfully
gotten into her hands the young prince, and heir of the monarchy, she
resolved on the utter ruin of the king, as well as of his favorite. She
engaged her brother to take part in the same criminal purpose: her court
was daily filled with the exiled barons: Mortimer lived in the most
declared intimacy with her: a correspondence was secretly carried on
with the malecontent party in England: and when Edward, informed of
those alarming circumstances, required her speedily to return with
the prince, she publicly replied, that she would never set foot in the
kingdom till Spenser was forever