o Cardiff, she remained there for some
little time without any further visit to Court. She alone of all the
Princesses was absent from the Church of Saint Nicholas at Calais, when
the King was married there to the Princess Isabelle of France--a child
of only eight years old. Something far more interesting to herself
detained her at Cardiff; where, on the 30th of November, 1396, an heir
was born to the House of Le Despenser.

That the will of "the Lady" stood paramount we see in the name given to
the infant. He was christened after her favourite brother, Richard--a
name unknown in his father's line, whose family names were always Hugh
and Edward.

In their unfeigned admiration of this paragon of babies, its mother and
grandmother sank all their previous differences. But when the difficult
question of education arose, the differences reappeared as strongly as
ever. The only notion which Constance had of bringing up a child was to
give it everything it cried for; while the Dowager was prepared to go a
long way in the opposite direction, and give it nothing in respect to
which it showed the slightest temper. The practical result was that the
boy was committed to the care of Maude, whom both agreed in trusting,
with the most contradictory orders concerning his training. Maude
followed the dictates of her own common sense, and implicitly obeyed the
commands of neither of the rival authorities; but as little Richard
throve well under her care, she was never called to account by either.

The year 1397 brought a political earthquake, which ended in the
destruction of three of the five grand traitors, the Lords Appellants.
The commons had at last opened their eyes to the real state of affairs.
The conspirators were meditating fresh projects of treachery, when by
the advice of the Dukes of Lancaster and York, Gloucester was arrested
and imprisoned at Calais, where he died on the 15th of September, either
from apoplexy or by a private execution. Richard Earl of Arundel, the
tool of his priestly brother, was beheaded six days later. The Earl of
Warwick, who had been merely the blind dupe of the others, was banished
to the Isle of Man. The remaining two--the ambitious Derby, and the
conceited Nottingham--contrived in the cleverest manner, not only to
escape punishment, but to obtain substantial rewards for their loyalty!
Derby presented a very humble petition on behalf of both, in which he
owned, with so exquisite a show