heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

TREHOUS. 125
" gatherings of his adversaries, and harrassed by their threats and seditious
" acts, he charged, at length, three of his servants to go to Falaise as
' '
quickly as possible and carry out this detestable work. Two, however,
" of these servants, recoiling from the commission of such a detestable act
'
against so noble a young man, fled away from the palace of their lord
" and King. The third, however, came to the castle in which the royal
" boy was kept by Lord Hubert de Burgh, the King's Chamberlain, having
" triple fetters round his feet. And when he had delivered the orders of
" the King his master to Hubert, there arose exceeding bewailings and
" lamentations amongst the soldiers, as moved by their exceeding pity for
" the noble young man. But Arthur, hearing
the dreadful sentence of his
" uncle passed upon him, and utterly hopeless for his own deliverance,
" burst into tears and piteous complaints. But when he who had been sent
" by the King to carry out the work happened to be standing by,
and his
" presence became known to the groaning and weeping boy, suddenly
" aroused, he started up in the midst of his lamentations, and violently laid
" his hands, lately hanging down in despondency, upon him for revenge,
"crying out in a lamentable voice to the soldiers standing round, 'O my
" '
dearest lords, for the love of God forbear for a short space, that I
may
" '
revenge myself upon this evil-doer before he takes away my eyes, for
" ' he is the last person whom I shall see in this present
life.' But the
" soldiers immediately sprang up to stop the tumult, and seized the hands
" of both of them ;
and at the command of the Lord Hubert, the young
" man who had come was turned out of the room. From whose expulsion,
" as well as from the comforting words of those assisting him, Arthur, the
" sadness of his heart being appeased, received a little consolation.
" But Hubert, the King's Chamberlain, wishing to consult the
" character and reputation of the King, and foreseeing that he would be
" pardoned for so doing, kept the royal boy uninjured, persuaded that his
" lord the King would speedily repent of such an edict, and ever after-
" wards hold him immeasurably excused because he had ventured to
" mitigate so cruel a command, in the belief that it had emanated rather
" from a sudden fury than from a well-balanced decision of equity and
"justice. Wishing, therefore, to mitigate the King's wrath for the time,
" and to restrain the fury of the Bretons, he caused a report to be circulated
" throughout the castle and the whole province that the King's sentence
" had been deferred, and that Arthur had died from a broken heart and
" the severity of his wounds. Which report was incessantly circulated for
" fifteen days. Lastly, the bell was tolled, as though for his soul, through-
" out the villages and the castle, and his clothing was distributed in a
" hospital of lepers. It was announced, also, that his body had been taken
" to the abbey of St. Andrew, of the Cistercian order, and there buried.
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