his ruin. He raised money by forced loans; he
compelled the judges to expound the law according to his own prejudices
or caprice; he required the former adherents of Gloucester to purchase
and repurchase charters of pardon; and, that he might obtain a more
plentiful harvest of fines and amercements, put at once seventeen
counties out of the protection of the law, under the pretence that they
had favored his enemies.

The Duke of Lancaster did not survive the banishment of his son more
than three months; and the exile expected to succeed by his attorneys to
the ample estates of his father. But Richard now discovered that his
banishment, like an outlawry, had rendered him incapable of inheriting
property. At a great council, including the committee of parliament, it
was held that the patents granted, both to him and his antagonist, were
illegal, and therefore void; and all the members present were sworn to
support that determination. Henry Bowet, who had procured the patent for
the duke of Hereford, was even condemned, for that imaginary offence, to
suffer the punishment of treason; though, on account of his character,
his life was spared on condition that he should abjure the kingdom
forever.

This iniquitous proceeding seems to have exhausted the patience of the
nation. Henry--on the death of his father he had assumed the title of
duke of Lancaster--had long been the idol of the people; and the
voluntary assemblage of thousands to attend him on his last departure
from London might have warned Richard of the approaching danger. The
feeling of their own wrongs had awakened among them a spirit of
resistance; the new injury offered to their favorite pointed him out to
them as their leader. Consultations were held; plans were formed; the
dispositions of the great lords were sounded; and the whole nation
appeared in a ferment. Yet it was in this moment, so pregnant with
danger, that the infatuated monarch determined to leave his kingdom. His
cousin and heir, the Earl of March, had been surprised and slain by a
party of Irish; and, in his eagerness to revenge the loss of a relation,
he despised the advice of his friends, and wilfully shut his eyes to the
designs of his enemies.

Having appointed his uncle, the Duke of York, regent during his absence,
the King assisted at a solemn mass at Windsor, chanted a collect
himself, and made his offering. At the door of the Church he took wine
and spices with his young Queen; and, li