“Tricked!” shouted Buckingham, laughing loud. “Tricked, my wise nephew! 'T were well to crush them neath the iron hand of fear, ere they find out this. So, I say, fall to!—Beat them down! Let blood flow! 'T is the one way!”
“Tricked?” the King repeated, frowning. “But I was honest.”
“Ay, my lord,” assured him Salisbury. “And so wert thou honest if a madman came to thee and gripped thy throat and said, 'Give me thy kingdom, King Richard,' and thou didst answer, 'Yea, freely I give it thee.' Natheless, the madman might not rule England. Neither may King Richard keep faith with him, for that were grievous wrong to Englishmen.”
The King laughed, as he were uncertain and ashamed; the colour came into his face. “'T is very raisonable,” he said slowly,—“but—I did not give them the kingdom,—I gave them—liberty.”
“My lord hath not forgot that concerning this matter Parliament hath a voice. It may well be Parliament shall give consent,—natheless”—Salisbury faltered, and Buckingham laughed very scornful.
“I am King!” cried Richard haughtily, but there was a question in his cry.
“My lord doth not forget,” said Salisbury, “as how in England the King taketh counsel with his people as concerning the welfare of the kingdom. Since the day of the first Edward, grandfather to my lord's grandfather, this is more and more a custom in England. Through[3] Parliament doth the King receive his grants, taxes, moneys for the King's expending. 'T were not well to make an enemy of Parliament. The court is straitened for moneys.”
Richard bit his lip and paced up and down, clinching his hands.
“Who said the King was free?” he cried. And on a sudden, very fierce: “If I am cozened, 't is not the peasants have cozened me.”
“O sire!” pleaded the old Earl, “think not of noblesse, nor of peasants, nor yet of thine own self,—but of all England, that thy grandfather Edward made a great nation. Wilt have it go to wrack in the hands of crazed villeins? Put down the revolt with a strong hand; then will they wake from their madness.”