[122] Gir. Cambr. De Instr. Princ., dist. iii. c. 8.
[123] Ib.
[124] Gir. Cambr. De Instr. Princ., dist. iii. c. 8. Cf. Bertrand de Born, “Ar ve la coindeta sazos,” ll. 33-5:
Bom sap l’usatge qu’a’l leos
Qu’a re venenda non es maus,
Mas contra orgolh es orgolhos.—
where the context shows that the “lion” stands for Richard.
[125] Gir. Cambr. De Instr. Princ., l.c.
[126] Ib.; Gerv. Cant. i. 303; and cf. R. Diceto, ii. 19—“Pictaviensibus ... quos Ricardus indebitis vexationibus et violenta dominatione premebat.”
[127] His brutal treatment of his Breton and “Basque” prisoners in 1183 is a wholly different matter. Those prisoners were not his own subjects; they were foreign invaders; the charge of cruelty mentioned above had no reference to them. Moreover, even their fate does not necessarily indicate that Richard was of a specially cruel disposition, for that fate does not appear to have outraged the public opinion of their day, at any rate in Aquitaine.