156 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. rights of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March ; and, on the 23rd of October, in the new parliament called by Henry on his acces- sion, it was resolved that Richard should be imprisoned for the rest of his life, but that if any one attempted his rescue, Rich- ard himself should be executed ! a resolution of such monstrous injustice that Rapin remarks, "qu'il y a quelque lieu de soup- cornier que I'histoire est defectueuse en cct endroit," though, as the fact is almost universally stated, we cannot do otherwise than believe it. Great mystery remains respecting the death of the ill-fated monarch.* Fabian asserts, that at a hint dropped by Henry, Sir Piers de Exton, accompanied by eight men, proceeded to Pontefract Castle, where Richard was confined. The day of his arrival, Richard, perceiving that the usual ceremony of tasting the viands was omitted, demanded the reason, and on being in- formed that it was the king's order, brought by Piers, he swore at both, and with a carving-knife struck the attendant on the face. -At this moment Piers and his party rushed into the room ; and Richard, too well guessing their mission, seized a weapon from the first, and defended himself with such energy that four of the assassins fell before him, and he would probably have sacrificed more had not Sir Piers leaped upon a chair and as he passed cleft his skull with a pole-axe. A short time previous to this tragical eve*nt, a conspiracy, in which the fair young queen took a conspicuous part, was set on foot by the Duke of Aumerle, the Lords Huntingdon and Salis- bury, the Bishop of Carlisle, and others, to assassinate Henry, and replace Richard on the throne. The time fixed for the exe- cution of this plot was a grand tournament about to be given at Windsor, but, by accident, a paper relating to it being found by the Duke of York on his son Aumerle's person, the latter, re- solving at least to have the credit of first revealing the con- spiracy, started on the spot, and throwing himself at Henry's feet, betrayed the whole to him. The king was so little pre-
- "Walsingham dit qu'il se laissa mourir de faim, du chagrin qu'il eut
de ce que le ccmplot avoit echoue. Stow dit qu'on lui fit souffrir, durant quinze jours, la faim, la soif et le froid, jusqu'a ce qu'il mourut. Polydore Virgile dit qu'on ne lui permettoit pas de toucher les viandes qu'on servoit devant lui. Hector Boece veut faire accroire que Richard s'enfuit deguise en Ecossp, ou s'etant adonne entierement a la contem- plation, il vecut, mourut, et fut enterre a Sterling. Cela peut-etre vrai de quelque Richard suppose." — Tindal, quoted by Rapin.
