He freely forgave John for all the mischief he had done
or tried to do, though he thought so ill of him as to say, "I wish
I may forget John's injuries to me as soon as he will forget my pardon
of him."
Richard only lived two years after he came back. He was besieging a
castle in Aquitaine, where there was some treasure that he thought was
unlawfully kept from him, when he was struck in the shoulder by a bolt
from a cross-bow, and the surgeons treated it so unskilfully that in
a few days he died. The man who had shot the bolt was made prisoner,
but the Lion-heart's last act was to command that no harm should be
done to him. The soldiers, however, in their grief and rage for the
king, did put him to death in a cruel manner.
Richard desired to be burned at the feet of his father, in Fontevraud
Abbey, where he once bewailed his undutiful conduct, and now wished
his body forever to lie in penitence. The figures in stone, of the
father, mother, and son, who quarreled so much in life, all lie on
one monument now, and with them Richard's youngest sister Joan, who
died nearly at the same time as he died, party of grief for him.
CHAPTER XIII.
JOHN, LACKLAND. A.D. 1199--1216.
As a kind of joke, John, King Henry's youngest son, had been called
Lackland, because he had nothing when his brothers each had some great
dukedom. The name suited him only too well before the end of his life.
The English made him king at once. They always did take a grown-up
man for their king, if the last king's son was but a child.
Pages:
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53