the trust to my mortal enemies -without a struggle, how darost thou look me again in the face ? Traitor of Rutland !" he concluded, casting his anger-glistening eyes on Aumerle, " thou art too vile for the feet of royalty to trample on ; foul betrayer, and offspring of a deeply villanous father, by thy wicked counsel Gloucester was assassinated, and by thy treachery the last prop of my hope, the loyal city of Bristol has just been given over to mine enemies. Out of my sight, accursed one ! or I shall go frantic with rage." Aumerle, in a great passion, threw down his cap at the King's feet, exclaiming, " Richard Plantaganet, thou art a vile liar !" " I am your King and lord," retorted Richard, " and despite mine enemies, will continue a King, and yet be a greater lord than ever." Upon this, Lancaster commanded Aumerle to be silent ; when Richard turned to Lancaster, and demanded, " Why am I thus guarded ? Am 1 your King or your prisoner ?" " You are my King, sir," replied the Duke with coolness; 4 1 but the council of your realm have thought proper to place a guard about you, till the decision of parliament." "Then this day let me have my beloved consort," rejoined the King, with a bitter oath, " Pardon me," said Leicester, "this cannot be, for the council have decreed that you are not to see your Queen." More than ever enraged by this reply, Richard heaped curses and infamy on the heads of them all, and as he hurriedly paced the apartment, threw down his cap as a challenge, and offered to fight any four of them. To appease the King, Lancaster went down on his knees, and exercised all his art. But finding his efforts vain, he with respectful obedience withdrew from the monarch, whose crown he was about to place on his own brow. On the day before the parliament met, threats, indignities, and the utter hopelessness of his cause had so queUed the proud spirit of the fallen King, that if the entries inserted by the order of Lancaster, in the rolls of parliament, are to be accredited, he, before a deputation of prelates, barons, knights, and lawyers, who waited upon him at the Tower, of his own free will, absolved his subjects from their allegiance, renounced all his kingly authority, pronounced himself, from his past demerits, incapable of reigning, and worthy to be deposed, and solemnly swore, that he never would endeavour to retract this deed, and that he desired his cousin of Lancaster, who was present, for his successor, and to whom he formally delivered the signet ring from his own finger, and the crown from his head. On the following day, September thirtieth, 1399, the assembled parliament accepted his resignation, formally voted his deposition, and overlooking the prior claims of the heirs of the late Earl of March, elected the Duke of Lancaster in his stead, by the title of Henry the Fourth. Thus was laid the foundation for the contests between the houses of York and Lancaster, which for several years afterwards deluged the country with blood, but which in the end contributed to give strength and consistency to the constitution. At this period the Queen was kept a state prisoner at Sunning Hill, where she was surrounded by the tools of Lancaster, and grossly misinformed regarding the misfortunes of her husband. Every pains was also taken to keep the news of Richard's deposition from the ears of the French King, but to no purpose. The Lady de Courcy, shortly after her expulsion from Leeds Castle, hastened to Paris, and, with her own lips, informed Charles the Sixth of the imprisonment of his daughter, Isabella of Valois, and her lord, Richard ; and the intelligence so overcame the French Monarch, that he was seized with one of those agonizing fits of frenzy to which he was so liable, and which, at length, put a period to his existence. Henry the Fourth was soon convinced that the crown of an usurper is ever a tottering one. At a tournament held by him during the Christmas festival at Windsor, Huntingdon, Salisbury, Aumerle, and others, conspired to murde*