he exclaimed, "fair uncle of Lancaster, God reward your soul! Had
I believed you, this man would not have injured me. Thrice have I
pardoned him; this is his fourth offence." But he referred the matter to
his council, and was advised to cross over to England immediately with
the ships which had brought the reenforcement under the Duke of
Albemarle. That nobleman, however, insidiously, as it was afterward
pretended, diverted him from this intention. The Earl of Salisbury
received orders to sail immediately with his own retainers, a body of
one hundred men, and to summon to the royal standard the natives of
Wales. Richard promised to follow in the fleet from Waterford in the
course of six days. The Earl obeyed; the men of Wales and Cheshire
answered the call; and a gallant host collected at Conway.

But Richard appeared not according to his promise; distressing reports
were circulated among the troops; and the royalists, having waited for
him almost a fortnight, disbanded in spite of the fears and entreaties
of their commander. At last, on the eighteenth day, the King arrived in
Milford Haven with the dukes of Albemarle, Exeter, and Surrey, the Earl
of Worcester, the bishops of London, Lincoln, and Carlisle, and
several thousands of the troops who had accompanied him to Ireland. With
such a force, had it been faithful, he might have made a stand against
his antagonist; but on the second morning, when he arose, he observed
from his window that the greater part had disappeared. A council was
immediately summoned, and a proposal made that the King should flee by
sea to Bordeaux; but the Duke of Exeter objected that to quit the
kingdom in such circumstances was to abdicate the throne. Let them
proceed to the army at Conway. There they might bid defiance to the
enemy; or at all events, as the sea would still be open, might thence
set sail to Guienne. His opinion prevailed; and at nightfall the King,
in the disguise of a Franciscan friar, his two brothers of Exeter and
Surrey, the Earl of Gloucester, the Bishop of Carlisle, Sir Stephen
Scrope, and Sir William Feriby, with eight others, stole away from the
army, and directed their route toward Conway. Their flight was soon
known. The royal treasure, which Richard left behind him, was plundered;
Albemarle, Worcester, and most of the leaders hastened to pay their
court to Henry; the rest attempted in small bodies to make their way to
their own counties, but were in most instances p