Page:The Queens of England.djvu/151

ISABELLA OF FRANCE. 127 Hugh Despenser, having witnessed from the walls of Bristol the dreadful death of his father, lost all spirit ; and being tied, by order of Sir Thomas Wager, the Marshal of the queen's army, upon the back of the least and most sorry steed that could be found, was thus led, clothed in his dress of state, with the arms of Gloucester emblazoned upon his tabard, and with trumpets and cymbals sounding before him, an object of deri- sion, through all the towns till they reached Hereford. There, nearly dead with grief, shame, and starvation — for he refused to eat, lest he should live till they reached London — he was executed. Mortimer now paraded before the public eye the favors of his royal mistress, and indulged his thirst for blood in the execution of his enemies. The Earl of Arundel had already been executed, with two other conspicuous persons, at Here- ford. When the queen arrived in London, vast crowds passed out to meet and welcome her. She was attended by a huge body of troops and followers, and accompanied by her knight- errant, John of Hainault, and her paramour, Mortimer. A parliament was held on the 15th of December, in which the king was formally deposed, and his son proclaimed instead, by the title of Edward the Third. The wretched king had already been compelled to resign the great seal to the delegate of the queen, Adam Orleton, the unprincipled Bishop of Hereford. This done, commissioners were sent to Kenilworth Castle, where the king was confined, with this base bishop and ready tool of Isabella at their head ; and here the king was compelled, under the vilest insults and abuse from Orleton, to strip himself of his regalia, which he did in much agony and prostration of mind. The young king was crowned at Westminster during Christmas, 1326. Sir John of Hainault was granted an annuity of four hundred marks, and, after much feasting, took his leave. Parliament appointed a regency of twelve peers and pre- lates, for the guardianship of the youthful sovereign and the nation ; but Isabella, Mortimer and Bishop Orleton, seized on creature, Bishop Orleton, seized on the reins of government, and acted as they pleased. From this time forward, the path of Isabella was one steep descent into crime and eternal infamy. The Scots, who had found an opponent in Edward the Second very different from his father, who had been a thorn in their side all his days, now