"
A horn was winded without, and presently Sir Henry Neville
entered with a packet of dispatches. "From England, my lord," he
said, as he delivered it.
"From England--our own England!" repeated Richard, in a tone of
melancholy enthusiasm. "Alas! they little think how hard their
Sovereign has been beset by sickness and sorrow--faint friends
and forward enemies." Then opening the dispatches, he said
hastily, "Ha! this comes from no peaceful land--they too have
their feuds. Neville, begone; I must peruse these tidings alone,
and at leisure."
Neville withdrew accordingly, and Richard was soon absorbed in
the melancholy details which had been conveyed to him from
England, concerning the factions that were tearing to pieces his
native dominions--the disunion of his brothers John and Geoffrey,
and the quarrels of both with the High Justiciary Longchamp,
Bishop of Ely--the oppressions practised by the nobles upon the
peasantry, and rebellion of the latter against their masters,
which had produced everywhere scenes of discord, and in some
instances the effusion of blood.
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