JOHN OF ENGLAND.

AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE.

BY HENRY CURLING,

AUTHOR OF

"THE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE."

Now powers from home, and discontents at home,
Meet in one line; and vast confusion waits

(As doth a raven on a sick-fallen beast),

The imminent decay of wrested pomp.

Now happy be whose cloak and cincture can
Hold out this tempest.

A thousand businesses are brief in hand.

And heaven itself doth frown upon the land.

KING JOHN.

IN THREE VOLUMES.

VOL. III.

LONDON:

RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET.

1846.

JOHN OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER I.

A RESCUE.

What! am I dar'd, and bearded to my face?-
Draw, men, for all this privileged place;

Blue coats or tawney coats.

A rope! a rope!

Now beat them hence; why do you let them stay?
Thee I'll chace hence, thou wolf in sheep's array.——
Out, tawney coats!-out, scarlet hypocrite!

SHAKESPERE.

ISABELLA of Angoulême had not borne her husband an heir when the young Arthur was thus foully done to death; so that John, in destroying this scion of Plantagenet, had left himself the sole representative of that heroic race. The beautiful queen, who at this period suffered from frequent attacks of illness, was again absent from John's court, so that he had not the consolation of her society during the

VOL. III.

B

first hours of remorse, after performing the dreadful deed narrated in our preceding chapter. The temper of the monarch, which we have already said was subject to periodical attacks of alternate deep gloom and outrageous violence, after the murder of Arthur became for a time so ungovernable, that few except the hired ruffians and mercenaries it was his pleasure to keep as his immediate guards and attendants, together with the villain Mauluc, cared to appear before him. In this state, secretly despised by mankind, he gave way to tempests of fury which seemed to unsettle his reason. He execrated all who appeared in his presence, struck his attendants, and even cursed the hour of his own birth, seizing his garments with his teeth, and tearing them with ungovernable rage, as if possessed by furies. In this situa tion of affairs, Mauluc took upon himself to despatch an escort for the Queen, hoping her presence might somewhat calm the distempered rage of the monarch. bus boviran ole

Isabella had no great reason to entertain any very tender feelings towards her royal consort, since he had forced her to break with the man