There were two more things that were shewed him:  the first, that he should not return home alive, but that his dead corpse should be carried there, and the second, what was the tidings that he should bear to the King.

Then he fell forward on his face, and so lay until the ending of the mass.

How Master Richard cried out in Westminster Hall:  and of his coming to a Privy Parlour

Eructavit cor meum verbum bonum:  dico ego opera mea regi.

My heart hath uttered a good word:  I speak my works to the king.—­Ps. xliv. 1.

V

It would be about half an hour before the King’s dinner-time, which was ten o’clock, that Master Richard came again to the hall.

There was not so great a press that day, and the holy youth was able to make his way near to the barrier that held back the common folk, and to see the King plainly.  He was upon his seat beneath the cloth-of-estate that was quartered with the leopards and lilies, and had his hat upon his head.  About him, beneath the scaffold on which he sat were the great nobles, and my lord cardinal had a chair set for him upon the right-hand side, on the step below the King’s.

All was very fair and fine, said Master Richard, with pieces of rich stuff hanging upon the walls on this side and that beneath the windows, and, finest of all were the colours of the robes, and the steel and the gold and the white fur and the feathers, and the gilded glaives and trumpets, and coat-armour of the heralds.

There was a matter about to be concluded, but Master Richard could not tell what it was, for there was a din of talking all about him, and he saw many clerks and Religious very busy together in the crowd, shaking their fingers, lifting their brows, and clacking like rooks at sunset—­so the young man related it.  There were two fellows with their backs to him, standing in an open space before the scaffold with guards about them.  One of the two was a clerk, and wore his square cap upon his head, and the other was not.

The King looked sick; he was but a young man at that time, not two years older than Master Richard.  He was listening with his head down, to a clerk who whispered in his ear, kneeling by his side with papers and a great quill in his hand, and the King’s eyes roved as he listened, now up, now down, and his fingers with rings upon them were arched at his ear.  My lord cardinal had a ruddy face and bright holy eyes, and sat in his sanguine robes with his cap on his head, looking out with his lips pursed at the clerks and monks that babbled together beyond the barrier.  He was an old man at this time, but wondrous strong and hearty.

At the end the King sat up, and there was a silence, but he spoke so low and quick, with his eyes cast down, and the shouting followed so hard upon his words, that Master Richard could not hear what was said.  But it seemed to content the clerks and the Religious [King Henry VI. was a great favourer of ecclesiastics.], for they roared and clamoured and one flung up his cap so that it fell beyond the barrier and he could not come at it again.  Then the two prisoners louted to the King, and went away with their guards about them; and the King stood up, and the cardinal.