e to meet him, he was afraid to land with the
small force that he had under his command, and so he sailed back to
France.

Thus the first attempt made to organize a forcible resistance to
Richard's power totally failed.

The unhappy queen, when she heard these tidings, was once more
overwhelmed with grief. Her situation in the sanctuary was becoming
every day more and more painful. She had long since exhausted all her
own means, and she imagined that the monks began to think that she was
availing herself of their hospitality too long. Her friends without
would gladly have supplied her wants, but this Richard would not
permit. He set a guard around the sanctuary, and would not allow any
one to come or go. He would starve her out, he said, if he could not
compel her to surrender herself in any other way.

It was, however, not the queen herself, but her daughter Elizabeth,
who was now the heir of whatever claims to the throne were possessed
by the family, that Richard was most anxious to secure. If he could
once get Elizabeth into his power, he thought, he could easily devise
some plan to prevent her marriage with Henry of Richmond, and so
defeat the plans of his enemies in the most effectual manner. He would
have liked still better to have secured Henry himself; but Henry was
in Brittany, on the other side of the Channel, beyond his reach.

He, however, formed a secret plan to get possession of Henry. He
offered privately a large reward to the Duke of Brittany if he would
seize Henry and deliver him into his, Richard's hands. This the duke
engaged to do. But Henry gained intelligence of the plot before it was
executed, and made his escape from Brittany into France. He was
received kindly at Paris by the French king. The king even promised to
aid him in deposing Richard, and making himself King of England
instead. This alarmed Richard more than ever.

In the mean time, the summer passed away and the autumn came on. In
November Richard convened Parliament, and caused very severe laws to
be passed against those who had been engaged in the rebellion. Many
were executed under these laws, some were banished, and others shut up
in prison. Richard attempted, by these and similar measures, to break
down the spirit of his enemies, and prevent the possibility of their
forming any new organizations against him. Still, notwithstanding all
that he could do, he felt very ill at ease so long as Henry and
Elizabeth were at liberty.