Down, down I come; like glistering Phaeton,
Wanting the management of unruly jades.
(_North retires to Boling._)
In the base court? Base court, where kings grow base,
To come at traitors' calls, and do them grace.
In the base court? Come Down? Down Court, Down King!
For night-owls shriek where mounting larks should sing.
(_Exeunt from above._)
Richard has been described as a prince of surpassing beauty; but
his mental powers did not correspond with his personal form, and his
character was both weak and treacherous. He, however, had some redeeming
points. His ordering some trees to be cut down at Sheen, because they
too forcibly reminded him of his deceased wife Anne, in whose company
he used to walk under them, affords a favourable testimony of his
susceptibility of the social affections. Of this sensitiveness, there
is also an interesting trait recorded by Froissart. From Flint Castle,
Richard was conveyed to London, and immured within the Tower cells.
While he was here one day conversing with Bolingbroke, his favourite
greyhound, Math, having been loosed by his keeper, instead of running
to the King, as usual, fawned upon the Duke. The latter inquiring the
cause of this unusual circumstance, was answered--"This greyhound
fondles and pays his court to you this day as King of England, which
you will surely be, and I shall be deposed."
To return to Flint Castle. After the civil wars under Charles I. it was
ordered to be dismantled; but, among other rights, it was restored to
Sir Roger Mostyn, after the Restoration, in whose family it is still
vested, though the mayor of the borough acts as its constable.
* * * * *