KING JOHN
HENRY II., King of England, was lord not of England only,
but of a good third of what we call France. If you take a map of France and draw a line from Boulogne due south to
the Pyrenees, you may say roughly that the country east of
it was swayed by the King of France, and the country west of it by the King of England.
From his mother Matilda, daughter of our Henry I., he inherited the dukedom of Normandy as well as the crown
of England ; from his father Anjou, Maine, and Touraine ;
and his marriage with Elinor, Duchess of Aquitaine, brought him the seven provinces of the south Poitou, Saintonge,
the Angoumois, La Marche, the Limousin, Perigord, and Gascony.
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Through his father Geoffrey, the handsome Plantagenet,
Count of Anjou Henry came of one of the most notable and terrible races in history ; a race descended from a wild Breton woodman who had helped the French king against
the Danes and won for himself a grant of broad lands beside
the Loire ; a race half-savage, utterly unscrupulous, and
abominably shrewd ; great fighters to begin with, afterwards
great generals, schemers, and controllers of men ; outwardly
good-natured and charming, but at heart lustful, selfish
monstrous in greed, without natural affection and indifferent
to honour ; scoffers at holiness, yet slavishly superstitious ;
and withal masterful men of affairs, sticking at no crime or
treason which might help their ends. Such was the character
fatally handed down from father to son. Henry inherited
his share of it, and passed it on to his sons, who broke his
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70
KING JOHN 71
heart by their hatreds and conspiracies against him ; but
the son whose treachery darkened his last hour was his
favourite, John.
Of these sons we are only concerned with three Richard
Cceur de Lion ; Geoffrey Duke of Brittany ; and John. On
his father's death, Richard who had hastened it by intriguing with the King of France succeeded to the throne.
Geoffrey was already dead, but had left a young son, Arthur,
of whom we are to hear.
Richard reigned for ten years, of
which he spent just six months in England.
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He was a brave soldier but a detestably bad king. He looked on war as a sport, and to feed that sport in foreign countries
he drained England by the cruellest taxes, which he repaid
with misgovernment, or rather with no government at all.
To him England, whose crown he wore, was a foreign land.
Now to John who remained at home while Richard went crusading England was not a foreign land, not a country
of second importance. John was the shrewdest as well as the wickedest of his shrewd and wicked race, and alone of
that race he valued England aright. We shall have to hate him ; but let this be set to his credit against his black sins.
He was the first of our kings to teach England by bitter suffering, indeed, but still he taught her to stand up for
herself and defy the world.
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When Richard died of an arrow-wound received while he was attacking the Castle of Chalus in the Limousin for
some treasure he supposed it to contain, John, who had long
been plotting against him at home, seized his opportunity
and the crown of England.
Pie had no right to it. The true heir was young Arthur, son of his elder brother Geoffrey. But John was here on
the spot, and he had his mother Elinor's support for with her, as with the father he injured, he had always been the
favourite son.
England acknowledged him ; Normandy
acknowledged him ; and in the south of France his mother
held Aquitaine secure for him.
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72 TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE
On the other hand Anjou, Maine, and Touraine did homage to young Arthur; and Philip, King of France,
stood forward to champion his cause not, as we shall see,
from any burning sense of justice, but calculating perhaps that on his borders so young and gentle a lad would be
a more comfortable neighbour than the ruthless and sinister John.
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At any rate, in answer to the entreaties of Constance,
Arthur's mother, he made a fine show of indignation and sent his ambassador Chatillon to, demand the surrender of John's claims.
" What follows," asked John grimly,
" if we refuse ?"
" Fierce and bloody war," replied Chatillon,
"proudly to
control you and enforce the rights you withhold by force."
" Here we have war for war, blood for blood, controlment
for controlment. Take that answer to France ; and
take it swiftly. For be you swift as lightning, the thunder
of my cannon shall be quick on your heels."
And John was as good as his word. Chatillon, delayed
by contrary winds, had scarcely time to reach France and
report this defiance to his master before John had collected
troops and was after him.
The ambassador found King Philip, with Constance,
Arthur, and his forces, collected before the walls of Angiers,
the capital of Anjou and birthplace of the Plantagenets.
----------------------------------------------------
The unhappy citizens of that town saw themselves, as we
say, between the devil and the deep sea. To acknowledge
Arthur, to acknowledge John, seemed equally hazardous ;
and an error in deciding would assuredly mean their ruin.
With admirable prudence, therefore, they had closed their
gates against both parties, and postponed the ticklish
business of declaring their preference until events should
determine which side was likely to win.
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This hesitancy of theirs naturally annoyed Philip, who
had by his side, to support Arthur's cause, the Viscount of Limoges though the real importance of this nobleman
counted as nothing to his importance in his own conceit.
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KING JOHN 7H
As friend of the family to a Plantagenet he was enacting a
new part. For it was by an arrow-shot from his Castle of
Chalus that Richard Cceur de Lion had perished.
---
This was hardly an affair to brag about ; but in honour of it ,Limoges ever after wore a lion's skin across his shoulders, and was swaggering now in this cloak while professing his love for Richard's nephew.
But if the part he
enacted was new, he seemed to feel it a magnanimous one,
and promised Arthur his help and received the thanks of Constance with the air of a man who has reason to be pleased with himself and believe Heaven pleased with him.
While Philip was making up his mind to batter the obstinate town into submission, Chatillon arrived with his
report and the news that John had crossed the Channel and was following upon Angiers by forced marches, bringing with him his mother Elinor, a very goddess of discord
stirring him up to blood and strife ; his niece Blanch,
daughter of his sister Elinor and King Alphonso of Castile ;
and a whole crowd of dauntless volunteers who had sold
their fortunes in England to equip themselves and win
new and greater fortunes in France.
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Chatillon spoke truth. Before Philip could bend his artillery against the walls, John arrived with his host and
brought the French to parley. There was little to argue.
Philip took his stand upon Arthur's plain right to inherit.
." Geoffrey was thy elder brother, and this is his son.
England was Geoffrey's right, and this is Geoffrey's."
" Whence hast thou commission to lay down a law and
condemn me by it ?" was all that John could demand in reply.
" From that supernal Judge," answered Philip,
" who stirs good thoughts in the breast of any man holding
strong authority, and bids him see to it when the right is
defaced or stained. That Judge has made me this boy's
guardian ; under His warrant I impeach the wrong you are
doing, and by His help I mean to chastise it." The parley
might have ended here had not the dispute been fiercely
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74 TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE
taken up by the tongues of the women, Elinor on the one side, Constance on the other. Limoges in his character of
family friend was ill-advised enough to interpose between
them, crying
" Peace !" " Hear the crier !" exclaimed a
mocking voice at his elbow. The insulted noble turned round, demanding who dared thus to interrupt, and found
himself face to face with a bluff and burly Englishman, a soldier commanding in John's army, Robert Faulconbridge
by name.
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Now this Faulconbridge was a son of Richard Cceur de
Lion's, born out of wedlock. Like his father, he loved fighting for its own sake, and like a true Englishman he
loved his country. So when John offered him service abroad, these two passions of his jumped together, and he
readily gave up all claim to his estates at home and took the knighthood held out to him as his reward. The honour,
as he confessed, he might learn to rise to. It was his humour to make himself out a rough and careless free-lance.
But this blunt humour covered a real earnestness, and to
see his father's memory insulted by this Limoges with the lion's skin was more than he could endure.
" Who is this fellow ?" demanded Limoges.
" One that will soon let you know, sir, if I can catch you
and that hide of yours alone. I'll tan that skin-coat for
you, I promise you. So look to it!" and Faulconbridge rated him until the ladies of John's train began to join in
the sport. "See," went on Faulconbridge, "the ass in
lion's clothing! Ass, I'll take that burden off you, never
fear, or lay on another that your shoulders shall feel !"
Limoges turned away in disgust; and Philip calling silence on this noisy diversion, demanded if John would
resign his usurped titles and lay down his arms. " My life as soon!" John retorted, and called on Arthur to submit,
promising him more by way of recompense than ever the
coward hand of France could win for him. Elinor, too,
urged Arthur to submit. "
Do, child," mimicked Constance,
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KING JOHN 75
using such prattle as is used to children. " Go to it grandam ; give grandam kingdom, and grandam will give it a plum, a cherry, and a fig; there's a good grandam."
The women's tongues broke loose again. Philip with difficulty cried them down at length, and bade a trumpet be
blown to summon the citizens of Angiers to the parley.
The citizens appeared on the walls, and John and Philip in turn urged them by threats and persuasion to make
their decision. The citizens made answer that they would acknowledge neither John nor Arthur until one had proved
himself the stronger ; for him they reserved their submission.
In this resolution they were obstinate, and the
two parties drew off to array their armies for the test of combat.
But the engagement which followed was indecisive.Each side claimed some trifling success, and on the strength
of their claims the heralds of France and England were soon under the walls once more urging the citizens to decide. The citizens, who had watched the fight with
impartial minds and from a capital position, made answer
to the heralds and to the impatient kings who followed, that
in their opinion no advantage had been gained by either
party, and that they abode by their determination to keep
their gates barred.
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On hearing this answer it occurred to the pugnacious Faulconbridge to recollect that once upon a time the
factions in Jerusalem under John of Giscala and Simon bar-Gioras had ceased their assaults upon each other to
combine in resisting the Romans. He suggested that this
example from history was worth copying, and that by first combining their forces to batter down Angiers, France and
England would clear the ground for settling their own quarrel. To this wild counsel, as its author modestly called
it, Philip and John were the more readily disposed to listen because in fact there appeared no other way out of a some
what ludicrous fix.
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76 TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE
Hitherto the citizens of Angiers had found the easiest policy that of sitting still and waiting the wisest. But now they saw clearly it was high time for them in their
turn to make a suggestion ; for if the two kings listened to Faulconbridge, as they seemed not averse from doing,
Angiers was doomed.
So their spokesman craved leave for a word, and it was granted. This astute burgess saw well enough that the
real decision for Angiers lay, not between Arthur and John,
its rightful and its wrongful sovereign, but between the army
of Philip and the army of John. From the beginning he
had pledged the town to accept as in the right the claimant
which should prove the stronger ; and from this there was
but a short step to the proposal he now made, which with
out any regard for right was simply aimed to get both
armies on the same side.
"
See," said he,
" on one side here is the Lady Blanch,
the niece of England ; on the other, Lewis, the Dauphin of
France. Where could be sought and found a couple more
clearly suited each for the other ? Unite them, and you
unite two divided excellences, which only need union to be
perfection ; you join two silver currents such as together
glorify the banks that bound them in."
It was a shameless
proposal, but the speaker was addressing shameless ears,
and did not allow this to trouble him. Indeed his eloquence
began to carry him away.
"
Marry them," said he,
" and
their union shall do more than battery upon our gates.
But without this match the sea enraged is not half so deaf,
nor are lions more confident, nor mountains and rocks more
immovable ; no, nor is Death himself in mortal fury onehalf
so peremptory, as we are to keep this city !"
"
Dear, dear !" commented Faulconbridge, who had a natural prejudice against any scheme likely to dissuade
from fighting, and perhaps a leaning of his own towards the
love of the Lady Blanch,
" here's a large mouth indeed ! It
spits forth death and mountains, rocks and seas, and talks
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KING JOHN 77
as familiarly of roaring lions as maids of thirteen talk of
puppy-dogs I Zounds ! in all my born days I was never so
bethumped with words I"
But the speaker knew what ears he was addressing.
First Elinor advised her son to grasp the offer. She saw that Philip was wavering ; perceived him already whispering
with his advisers; noted that he glanced about him, and
that Arthur and Constance were not present to harden him
in the right.
" Will their Majesties answer me ?" asked the voice upon the wall. " Let England speak first," said
wavering Philip. And John on this invitation spoke ;
offering Anjou, Touraine, Maine, Poictiers for the bride's
dowry. The bribe was too much for Philip ; the young couple professed themselves willing ; Angiers opened her
gates. Philip had one spasm of contrition for the widow and the widow's son he was betraying ; but John quickly
silenced his regrets.
" Arthur shall be Duke of Brittany
and Earl of Richmond, as well as lord of this fair town. If
we cannot fulfil all the Lady Constance's wishes, we will at
least give enough to silence her exclamations." The whole
party passed through the gates to solemnise the contract
without loss of time, leaving that rough soldier Faulconbridge
to muse alone on the power of Self-Interest, that
goddess who persuades men to break their vows, and kings
to do off the armour which conscience has buckled on. But
Faulconbridge had perhaps more than one reason for
being out of temper.
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To the Earl of Salisbury fell the thankless errand of carrying the news to Constance as she sat with her son in the French king's pavilion. Her outcries were terrible and pitiful too. " Gone to be married ! Gone to swear a truce
to join false blood with false blood !" She would not believe it. She turned fiercely on the Earl, and then reading the truth in his looks, fell to caressing and fondly
lamenting over her boy. "Begone!" she commanded Salisbury,
" leave me alone with my woes."
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78 TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE
" Pardon me, madam," he answered,
" I may not return without you."
"Thou mayst thou shalt. I will not go. Grief so great as mine is proud," and she seated herself upon the ground.
"
Here," said she,
" I and sorrows sit. Here is
my throne; go bid kings come and bow before it !"
Terrible were the curses she uttered when the kings with the bridal train returned from the ceremony and found her
seated thus ; curses and prayers for discord between them,
swiftly to be fulfilled. The officious Limoges again tried to
pacify her, and again most ill-advisedly, for she turned on
him and withered him with contemptuous fury. He was
a coward, ever strong upon the stronger side ; a champion
who never fought but when fighting was safe ; a ramping,
bragging, fool ; a loud-mouthed promiser, who fell away
from his promises.
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" Thou wear a lion's hide ! Do it off
for shame, and hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs !"
Limoges was stung.
" If a man," he sputtered, "dared
to say those words to me !"
" And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs," spoke a
cool voice at his elbow, and there stood Faulconbridge ready for him.
It was maddening. "Villain! for thy life thou darest not say so !"
" And hang a calf-skin on those recreant limbs,'
repeated Faulconbridge imperturbably.
John had scarcely time to call peace between them before
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a newcomer was announced Pandulph, the legate of Pope Innocent the Third. The Pope had grave cause of anger
against John. After the death of Hubert Walter, Arch
bishop of Canterbury, John had forced the monks of Christchurch
to accept a creature of his own, John de Gray,
Bishop of Norwich, as Primate. Innocent set aside the
election, and consecrated Stephen Langton, a cardinal and
thorough churchman, as archbishop. John refused to
allow Stephen to set foot in England, drove out the monks
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KING JOHN 79
of Christchurch, quartered a troop of soldiers in their
cloisters, and confiscated their lands. Innocent threatened
excommunication, and now sent Pandulph to demand in
the Pope's name why John had not submitted.
This flung John into a fury.
" What earthly name can
compel the free breath of a sacred king to submit to
questioning ? Go, ask your master that ; and further add,
from the mouth of England, that no Italian priest shall take
tithe or toll in our dominions. But as, under God, we are
supreme head, so under Him we will uphold that supremacy
without the assistance of any Pope !"*
" Brother of England, you blaspheme," put in Philip, shocked by this defiance.
"
Blaspheme, do I ? Though you and all the kings in Christendom are misled by this meddling priest this man
who sells divine pardon for money ; though you and all the
rest feed this juggling witchcraft with your moneys ; yet I
alone alone, I say will stand up against it and count the
Pope's friends my foes."
This was enough. In the Pope's name Pandulph pronounced the terrible words of interdict placing John
without the pale of Christianity, blessing all who revolted from allegiance to him, and promising the name and worship
of a saint to any one who should by secret murder rob him
of his hateful life. And the curses of Constance echoed the
appalling sentences.
Then turning to Philip, Pandulph bade him, on peril of the Pope's curse, withdraw his friendship and join with the
rest of Christendom against the heretic.
This demand, coming so soon upon his newly-knit com pact, placed Philip in a truly pitiable plight. And standing
there amid the clamours of the women between the imperious
* Remember that Shakespeare, who puts this defiance into John's
mouth, was writing for a Protestant England. Call it right or wrong,
"
England for England
" was John's motto, and black as Shakespeare
must paint him it is also the motto of this play.
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80 TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE
calm of Pandulph and dark face of John, who stood silent,
waiting for his answer with the sneer ready on his lips, the
King of France cut a sorry figure. In vain he protested
and appealed to Pandulph. The legate answered him
calmly, proving that to keep faith with John was to break
faith with religion that to be friends with both was
impossible.
And in the end, as was certain from the first, Philip gave way. Though by doing so he must set discord between the
young pair so newly married, he gave way. John had looked for nothing else. " France," said he, with curt
contempt,
" thou shalt rue this hour within this hour "; and
turning to Faulconbridge, bade him draw the English
forces together. Faulconbridge needed no second bidding.
And in the fight which followed, Faulconbridge, at least,
had his revenge. It is not known in what part of the field
he encountered Limoges, or what was said between them.
But he returned nonchalantly bearing Limoges' head, and
asserting that, by his life, it was very hot weather !
----------------------------------------------------
John, too, enjoyed some measure of revenge in taking prisoner young Arthur, whom he handed over into the
keeping of his Chamberlain, Hubert de Burgh.
In the camp of the beaten French there was little doubt now of the fate in store for the boy.
His mother, Constance, cried
for him, and refused to be comforted. Her body had become a grave to her soul, a prison holding the eternal
spirit against its will. Her cries and calls upon death wrung the hearers' hearts. They deemed her mad wholly,
but she denied it with fierceness.
" I am not mad. If I
were, I could forget my son, or cheat myself with a babe of
rags. I am not mad."
Binding up her dishevelled hair,
she fell to wondering and asking Pandulph if 'twere true she
should meet her boy in heaven.
" For now sorrow will canker his beauty, and he will grow hollow as a ghost, and
dim, and meagre ; and so he'll die. And so, when he rises again, and I meet him in the court of heaven, I shall not
know him shall never, never again behold my pretty Arthur !"
Philip and Pandulph tried to rebuke this excess of grief. She pointed to the Legate,
" He talks that never
had a son!" Then turned to the King: "Grief! It is grief that fills up the room of my absent child, lies in his bed, walks at my side, puts on his pretty looks, and repeats his words. Good reason have I to be fond of grief. Fare you well ! Had you such a loss as 1,1 could give
better comfort than yours."
And she went her way to her
chamber ; but as she went she broke out crying again,
" O
Lord ! my boy, my fair son, my Arthur !"
Lewis the Dauphin and Pandulph watched her as she went, the boy shallow of heart and head, the man deepwitted
and just now thoughtful even beyond his habit.
" Before the curing of a disease," he mused, half-aloud,
"
ay, in the instant when health turns back towards repair, the fit is strongest. It is strange, now, to think how much
John has lost in this which he supposes so clearly won. You are grieved, are you not, that Arthur is prisoner ?"
"As heartily," said Lewis, "as John is glad."
" You are young. Listen ; John has seized Arthur, and while that lad lives John cannot draw a quiet breath.
Arthur will fall."
" But what shall I gain by Arthur's fall ?"
"
Simply this, that in the right of your bride, the Lady Blanch, you can then claim all that Arthur did. The times conspire with you. This murder of Arthur which must be
will so freeze the hearts of men against John that every natural sign of heaven will be taken for an index of divine wrath against him."
" May be," Lewis urged,
" he will not touch his life, but
hold him a prisoner."
" Should you but move a foot," said the astute priest,
" even if Arthur be not dead already, at that news he dies.
That death will set the hearts of all England in revolt. Nor is this all. Faulconbridge is even now in England ransack-ing the church and offending charity. A dozen French over there at this moment would whistle ten thousand Englishmen to their side. Shall we lay this before your
father ?"
The temptation was too strong.
" Yes, let us go,"
answered Lewis. "
Strong reasons make strong actions.
What you urge my father will not deny."
On one point Pandulph was not mistaken. While Arthur lived John could not draw quiet breath. No sooner had he
despatched Faulconbridge to England than he called Hubert de Burgh to him. Of murder he would not speak openly,
but first he dwelt on Hubert's professed love for him, and went on to say that he had a matter to speak of, but must
fit it to some better time. The day was too open. If it were night now, and a friend standing by such a friend as
could see without eyes, hear without ears, make reply with
out tongue, why then . . . and yet he loved Hubert well and believed himself loved in return.
" So well," protested Hubert, " that were it death to do bidding of yours, I would undertake it !"
" Do I not know thou wouldst ? Hubert," he whispered,
casting a glance over his shoulder at the boy, whom Elinor
had craftily drawn aside. " Good Hubert, throw an eye on that boy yonder. I tell thee he is a serpent in my way.
Wheresoever I tread he lies before me. Dost understand ?
Thou art his keeper."
" And will keep him so that he shall never offend your
Majesty."
" Death." John muttered the word, half to himself.
" My lord ?" Hubert heard, and half understood.
" A grave." John was not looking at him.
" He shall not live."
"Enough." John made show not to have heard.
"Hubert, I love thee. Well, well, I'll not say what I intended.
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84 TALES FROM SHAKESPEARE
When Hubert, however, had his young charge safe in England, John's commands became more precise. Arthur's eyes were to be burnt out with hot irons an order which revolted even one of the executioners hired for the task.
And when the dreadful hour came, and Hubert had the men stationed behind the arras with orders to heat the
irons, his heart, as he sent for the boy, sickened at the thought of the black business.
For Arthur with his gentle
and confiding nature had soon given Hubert his love, and Hubert's rough nature was touched by the child who meant no harm to any one and could not understand that any one should mean harm to him.
Arthur saw at once that his friend was heavy.
" Why should you be sad ?" he asked. " I think nobody should be
sad but I ; and if only I were out of prison, and a shepherdboy,
I could be as merry as the day was long. I would even be merry here, if it were not for fear of my uncle.
Is it my fault, though, that I am Geoffrey's son ? I wish I were your son, Hubert, and then you would love me."
This innocent talk was torture to Hubert. He feared that more of it would steal all his resolution, and therefore
pulled out the hateful paper at once and showed it, turning away to hide the tears that against his will came into his eyes.
" What !" cried the dazed child. " Burn out my eyes !
Will you do it ? Have you the heart ?
Hubert, when your head ached, I bound it with my handkerchief the best I had and sat with you at midnight to comfort you.
If you think this was crafty love, you must. But will you ndeed put out these eyes that never so much as frowned on you, and never shall ?"
" I must. I have sworn," groaned Hubert, and stamped his foot for signal to call the executioners. It was pitiful
how Arthur ran and clung to him at the sight of them with their cords and irons.
" Save me, Hubert, save me !" he screamed.
KING JOHN 85
" Give me the iron, and bind him here," commanded Hubert.
" No, no I will not struggle. I will be still as a stone. For Heaven's sake do not let them bind me ! Hubert, hear
me ! drive these men away, and I will sit as quiet as a lamb. I will not wince, will not speak a word. Only send these men away, and I will forgive whatever torment you
put me to !"
" Go," said Hubert, " leave me with him." And the executioners withdrew, glad to be released from the horrible
deed. " Come, boy, prepare yourself."
But Arthur pleaded on his knees.
" Hubert, cut out my
tongue, if you will, but spare my eyes ! O, spare my eyes !"
The iron, while he pleaded, grew cold in Hubert's hand.
He could not do this monstrous crime. It was ruin for him if John discovered the truth, but he would take the risk, and spread the report that Arthur was dead. Thus resolved, he led the boy away to hide him. His friends in the French camp were not the only ones who foreboded evil for Arthur.
To make all sure, John on
his return to England had himself crowned a second time.
The barons who attended the Earls of Pembroke, Salisbury, and the rest were full of courtly phrases. This
second coronation, they assured John, was superfluous as to gild refined gold, to paint the lily, perfume the violet, or
seek to garnish daylight with a taper.
But behind these polite professions they were whispering about Arthur's fate.
And when John bade them state what reforms they wished
for, the Earl of Pembroke boldly requested, for all, that
Arthur should be set at liberty.
" Let it be so," answered John, who knew, or thought he knew, how idle a thing he conceded. At this moment
Hubert entered, and the King drew him aside, while the lords whispered their suspicions.
" Good lords," announced John, coming back,
" I regret
that to grant your demand is beyond me. This man tells me that Arthur died last night."
There was an ominous silence. Then the Earl of Salisbury spoke.
"
Indeed," said he with meaning,
" we feared that his sickness was past cure." "
Yes," added the Earl of
Pembroke, " we heard how near his death he was before he felt himself sick. This must be answered for."
" Why are you frowning on me ?" John demanded.
"Do I hold the shears of destiny, or can I command life ?"
"It is foul play," said Salisbury boldly, and Pembroke echoed him. In stern anger the barons withdrew.
Already John began to repent his cruel order, or at any rate the haste of it.
Soon he had further cause. News came that France was arming mightily to invade England nay, had already landed
an army under the Dauphin ; that his mother Elinor was dead ;
that death, too, had ended the frenzy of poor Constance.
How could he meet the invaders ? His barons were disaffected. Faulconbridge, who had been levying cruel toll upon the clergy, returned with word that the
whole country was uneasy, full of vague fears, overrun with men prophesying disasters.
In truth the interdict lay on
the land like a blight.
All public worship of God had
ceased. The church-doors were shut and their bells silent
men celebrated no sacrament but that of private baptism ;
youth and maid could not marry ; the dying went without
pardon or comfort ; the dead lay unburied by the highroads ;
the corpses of the clergy were piled on churchyard walls in
leaden coffins ; the people heard no sermons but those
preached at the market-crosses by priests who cried down
curses, or wild prophets who uttered warnings and pointed
to the signs of heaven for confirmation.
With news similar
to Faulconbridge's Hubert broke in on the King, as he sat
muttering in dark sorrow for his mother Elinor's death. It was "
Arthur," Arthur," in all men's mouths. The peers KING JOHN 87
had gone to seek Arthur's grave ; all the common folk whispered of Arthur's death.
" Arthur's death?" John interrupted him savagely. "Who
murdered him but you ?"
" At your wish," retorted Hubert.
" It is the curse of kings to be attended by such overhasty slaves."
" Here is your hand and seal for it," Hubert protested.
But John, who by this time heartily wished Arthur alive
again, broke out on him with craven reproaches. Why
had Hubert taken him at his word? Why had he not
dissuaded, even by a look a look would have been enough."
So he ran on, until Hubert had to confess the truth, that
Arthur was yet alive.
" Arthur alive !" The King sprang up.
" Hasten ! Report it to the peers ! Forgive what I said in my passion ;
my rage was blind. Nay, answer me not, but hasten and bring these angry lords back to me !"
But Hubert was mistaken. Arthur was no longer alive-
The unhappy Prince, scheming to break from his prison,had escaped the watch by donning a ship-boy's clothes ; but
in a rash leap from the walls had broken himself upon the
stones below, a little while before the barons Pembroke,
Salisbury, and Bigot arrived in search of him. Before hearing Hubert's news John had despatched Faulconbridge
to persuade them to return. He overtook them by the wall of the castle ; and while he urged them, they stumbled
together on the young body lying at the base of it.
" It was murder," they swore ;
" the worst and vilest of
murder ; nay, a murder that stood alone, unmatchable !"
They appealed to Faulconbridge.
" It is a damnable work," he admitted indignantly.
" The deed of a heavy hand ; that is," he mused doubtfully,
" if it be the work of any hand."
"///" cried Salisbury. "There is no if// We had an inkling of this. It is Hubert's shameful handiwork devised
by the King whose service, kneeling by this sweet child's
body, I renounce, and swear neither to taste pleasure nor take rest until I have glorified this hand of mine with
vengeance !"
And the two other barons said AMEN to him.
But hardly was the vow taken before Hubert himself arrived, hot with haste, and panting,
" Lords, the King sends for you. Arthur is alive !" With that he stood con
founded, staring down upon Arthur's dead body.
"
Begone, villain !" Salisbury drew his sword. " Murderer !" " I am no villain, no murderer," Hubert protested.
" Cut him to pieces !" urged Pembroke. Faulconbridge flung himself between them, threatening to strike Salisbury
dead if he stirred a foot. " Put up your sword, or I'll so maul you and your toasting-iron that you'll think the
devilh imself has got hold of you !" And Salisbury, proud lord
as he was, obeyed. But, though Hubert protested his innocence, the angry lords would not believe. Faulconbridge could do no more, and was forced, to his chagrin,
to watch them galloping off to join the Dauphin.
When they were gone he turned to Hubert. " Know you of this work ? For if this work be yours, Hubert, your
soul is lost beyond reach of mercy ; nay, if you but consented, despair. Hubert, I suspect you grievously."
Said Hubert :
" If in act, or consent, or thought, I stole
the sweet breath of this child, let hell lack pains enough for my torture ! I left him well." He lifted the body and
carried it in his arms into the castle, while
Faulconbridge followed sorely perplexed.
" I lose my way," confessed
that honest soldier,
" amid the thorns and dangers of this
world."
By this time John's case was a sorry one. Pope Innocent had formally deposed him, and was urging on the crusade
which the Dauphin led against England. Wales was in revolt, Scotland intriguing against him. But, worse than all, England herself could not be relied on. Betrayed by
his barons, who flocked to Lewis' standard ; denounced
by the clergy ; sullenly hated by all classes, who laid the miseries of the interdict to his account ; the King felt the
ground slipping from under his feet.
But he was an Angevin, after all ; that is to say, as diabolically clever as he was shameless. It only needed
shamelessness, and by a bold stroke he could turn the tables
on France, and perhaps win back all. John played it. He sent for Pandulph, and hypocritically tendered his submission to the Pope, on condition that the Pope called off the
French and put a stop to the crusade against him. Like many a man without religion John was slavishly superstitious, and he had heard it prophesied that before Ascension Day he should deliver up his crown ; and it pleased
him to think that by this form of tendering it into Pandulph's
hands he was cheating Heaven as well as his enemies.
Pandulph gave him back the circlet, and hastened off to compel the Dauphin to lay down his arms. Scarcely had
he left before Faulconbridge arrived with news that London had thrown open its gates to the French, and the barons
refused to return to their allegiance.
" What ! When they heard that Arthur was yet alive ?"
"
They found him dead done to death by some accursed hand."
" That villain Hubert told me he lived."
"On my soul," said Faulconbridge, "he did, for aught Hubert knew."
John informed him of the peace just made with the Pope. As might be expected, this news filled Faulconbridge
with disgust. It was too much altogether for his English stomach. " But perhaps," he suggested," the Cardinal
Pandulph cannot make your peace," he had to call it "yourpeace
" "
and, if he can, let them see at least that wemeant to defend ourselves." And with John's permission he hurried off to save what he could of England's honour.
Indeed, Pandulph was not prospering on his errand. He found the Dauphin entertaining the revolted barons with
words as fair as they were deceitful, since, after using them to crush John, he meant to make short work with Salisbury,
Pembroke, and the rest. Young Lewis had learnt his lesson too well. As Pandulph himself had once suggested, he was
now by Arthur's death left with a good claim to the English
crown.
In short, he flatly refused to draw off his troops.
" Am I Rome's slave ?" he demanded. " Your breath kindled this war, b
---------------------------------------------------
In short, he flatly refused to draw off his troops.
" Am I Rome's slave ?" he demanded. " Your breath kindled this war, but who maintained it ? Who but I provided men and munition, and bore the sweat of this business ? Here I am with England half-conquered, and all
the best cards in my hand, and you ask me to retire ! No,on my soul, I will not !"
In this temper Faulconbridge found him, with the legate at a complete loss. It was the chance he had prayed for,
and he made royal use of it. In the name of England he stood up to the angry Dauphin, defied him, and dressed him
down with threats. " Our English King promises through me to whip you and your army of youngsters out of his
territories. What ! the hand that cudgelled you the other day
at your own door till you jumped the hatch and hid yourself,
and shook even when a cock crew your own Gallic cock
thinking its voice an Englishman's do you deem that hand
which chastised you in your own chambers to be enfeebled
here ?"
And having done with the Dauphin, he swung round on the revolted barons and gave them their rating in turn.
"
Enough !" broke in Lewis at length.
" We grant you
can outscold us."
Pandulph would have put in a word, but
Faulconbridge bore him down, and with mutual defiance the parley ended.
It was war now, but a war which brought disasters to both sides. In the south of England the Dauphin met with
small resistance ; but the fleet 'which was to bring him supplies came to wreck on the Goodwin Sands, and the English
barons, warned of the treachery he plotted against them,
streamed away from him.
On the other hand, John, though
he kept the field fiercely, traversing the midlands by forced
marches from the Welsh border to Lincoln and breaking up the barons' plans, was already touched with a fever which
increased on him as he started from Lynn and crossed the
Wash in a fresh movement northwards. In crossing the sandy flats his troops were surprised by the tide, and all his
baggage and treasure washed away.
Shaking with the fever, which by this time had taken fatal hold of him, wet, exhausted, and sick at heart, the
stricken tyrant took shelter in the Abbey of Swineshead.
There, men said, a monk poisoned his food but although
the monks had reason enough to hate him, we need not lay
this crime at their door.
Panting for air, crying that his
soul might have elbow-room for hell was within him, he was borne out into the abbey orchard. The tears of his
young son Henry fell on his face. "The salt of them is hot," he complained ; and so, at the height of his own misery
and England's, he died.
His death put a new face on the fortunes of England.
Against a young king, supported by the barons and the better hopes of his subjects, the troops of a foreigner could
not hold their ground for long on this island. And the lesson of this " troublesome raigne"
is summed up for us in
the wise, brave, and patriotic words of Faulconbridge
lines which every English boy should get by heart :
" This England never did, nor never shall,
Lie at the proud foot of a conqueror,
But when it first did help to wound itself.
Now these her princes are come home again,
Come the three corners of the world in arms,
And we shall shock them. Nought shall make us rue,
If England to herself do rest but true
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