Page:The Queens of England.djvu/74

60 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. England, leaving to Richard alone the provinces beyond sea. Richard appealed to the King of France for aid in. asserting his birthright ; and the last tidings which reached the king — tidings which pierced his heart like a dagger — were, that the perverse, much-indulged John was in arms against him. He had consented to meet his son Richard and the King of France at Vezelai, to adjust their causes of difference, but on his way thither expired in one of those paroxysms of rage to which he was addicted. He died in the arms of Geoffrey, the youngest son of Rosamond Clifford, leaving with him his blessing, whilst his heart was rent with that hatred towards the princes his sons, of which even in death his countenance retained the most fearful traces. Richard, who inherited his mother's impulsive nature, whether for good or for evil, no sooner heard of the death of his father, than his soul was penetrated with grief and remorse. He hastened to the abbey of Fontevraud, where, according to Henry's dying wishes, his body had been conveyed, and hum- bled, penitent, and wrung with unavailing grief, advanced slowly toward the bier on which lay the dead king, his face still bearing evidence of his stern resentment. As Richard advanced, strange to say, blood gushed forth from the mouth and nostrils of the corpse — a sign, according to the supersti- tion of the age, that the body recognized the approach of its murderer, and thus testified against him. The sight over- came Richard ; weeping and horror-stricken, he knelt before the altar, praying for that forgiveness from God which he believed his father withheld from him. Richard was now king of England, and the first act of his sovereign power was to order the release of his mother and the imprisonment of the keeper de Glanville in one of the dun- geons of the palace. From Winchester Eleanor came forth a widow, but again a queen, for she was nominated by her affec- tionate son as regent of the kingdom during his absence ; and the first acts of her supreme power prove how worthy she was of the confidence he placed in her. During the reign of her husband the Norman forest-laws, which were relaxed during the rule of Beauclerc and Stephen, had been enforced with merciless severity, and the whole land groaned under them, the prisons being full of offenders, and the woods of outlaws. The first acts, therefore, of Eleanor were in mitigation of these laws. She went fjom city to city, not to parade her glory in