Scotchmen lay dead upon the hill-side; and the border warfare was once more decided, for a time, in favor of the southern kingdom. This battle, called the battle of Homildon Hill, was fought on the feast of Holyrood, September 14th, 1402. If Henry returned disappointed from his expedition against Wales, he had the satisfaction to learn of the defeat of enemies equally troublesome and far more hated. He sent orders to the Percys not to ransom the illustrious captives, but to await his further commands. Northumberland was very indignant at this, since the ransoms were in that age considered as just spoils of the victors. The proud Earl came sullenly to London with Murdac and several other prisoners, and brought them to the King at the palace of Westminster. Sir Adam Foster, one of the Scotch, kneeled at the foot of the throne and besought the royal leniency for himself and his companions. Henry received the obsequious knight coldly and haughtily; but turning and addressing Murdac, he said: "Bear thy captivity with patience, knight; thou hast fallen into my hands, fighting like a brave knight in battle." Then with the stately courtesy characteristic of him, he entertained his noble prisoners at his own table.

The course which Henry adopted in refusing to allow the ransom of Percy's prisoners was the first cause of irritation between him and his proud vassal. Other causes adding their weight to the discontent, the breach grew to hatred, and in the end a formidable and dangerous rebellion resulted from the pride and anger which had been excited. Henry's path, much as he desired it, was not destined to be a peaceful one. One distraction followed so closely on anoth er, that the most vigorous efforts were necessary to

avert the destruction which a combination of difficulties might effect. His safety was due to the wise sagacity and well-governed temper which marked every act of his regal career; and it would be a violence to our nature not to admire the ability with which he averted every calamity which threatened his crown, and handed it, with undiminished integrity, down to his successor.

A truce had been concluded with France; yet the French nobility viewed with dread and envy the increasing stability of the usurper's occupation. The Duke of Orleans, brother of King Charles, was a brave, noisy, quarrelsome, ambitious young man, always fighting tournaments, or intriguing against Burgundy, his uncle, for control of the government. He was thoroughly selfish and devoid of principlewilling to sacrifice every other interest that his own might prosper. When Bolingbroke had been an exile at the French court, this prince had treated him with every token of confidence and affection, had been solicitous for his comfort, had been constantly his companion, had sworn eternal friendship, had used every exertion to consummate the proposed marriage with his cousin Marie de Berri, had urged him to resist Richard, and had assured him of every aid which he was capable of giving to the end of recovering the duchy of Lancaster in England.

Henry's surprise may be imagined when he receiv ed from this once ardent friend a challenge to meet him in combat, giving as a cause of quarrel that the times were dull, and that Orleans sought occasion to gain renown! The terms proposed were, that they should each lead out a hundred knights in person, armed with lance, battle-axe, sword, and dagger; and

that, animated merely by patriotic rivalry, they should engage in single and deadly combat. Henry, who was both amused and indignant, treated the messengers with contempt, and dismissed them from his presence without the usual courtesies. He allowed some time to elapse before he deigned to reply to the arrogance of his former friend. At length he wrote a long letter to Orleans, which is rich in irony, yet full of haughtiness. He declared that he was amazed to receive a challenge, most of all from Orleans, and in time of peace; he dissolved the friendly confidence which had once existed between them; he denied that kings were open to challenge to personal combat except from kings. "As to the idleness of which you complain," he continues sarcastically, "it is true that we are less employed in arms and in seeking honor than our noble ancestors; but God is great. When it pleases him, we shall follow their footsteps. It seems to us, that a prince-king ought only to fight for the honor of God, the common benefit of Christendom, or for the good of his kingdom, and not for vainglory or an ambition wholly temporal." The last sentences breathe a loftier sentiment than we find to have been often uttered in that rude era; they show the essentially religious character of Henry's cogitations. The letter closed with a severe castigation of Orleans for his faithlessness, and pointed out, in no mincing terms, that a knight's honor was disgraced by a disregard of truth.

The French prince, upon receipt of this missive, indulged in a paroxysm of bootless rage. He at once forwarded another challenge to Henry; adding now a new cause of quarrel. His niece Isabella, he said, had been sent ignominiously home without her dower.

Henry was a usurper and a murderer. It was the office of a prince of France to avenge the death of Richard as the spouse of a French princess, as well as to assert by combat Isabella's right to the dignity of an English crown.

Henry's reply was cool and bitter. "In regard to the dignity we hold, it appears you do not approve of the manner in which we have obtained it. Certes, we are greatly astonished at this, for we made you fully acquainted with our designs before we departed out of France, at which time you approved of our voyage, and promised us your assistance if we re quired it, against our very dear lord and cousin, King Richard, whom God absolve! We wanted not your assistance; and we hold your approbation or disapprobation in no account, since God and our people, the free inhabitants of this kingdom, have approved of our right."

Orleans, thoroughly vanquished as far as the verbal contest was concerned, and finding in the royal epistles but little encouragement that his ennui would be relieved by pricking the royal person, returned to the equally congenial occupations of insulting Burgundy, abusing the insane King, intriguing with his brothers' wives, and fighting duels with injured husbands. A complaint from Henry to the French court put a stop to further annoyance.

The friends of Lord Grey de Ruthyn and Sir Edmund Mortimer, who, as we shall see, were prisoners of Owen Glendower, petitioned Henry to permit their ransom to be paid, that they might be released. The King readily gave his consent as far as Lord Grey was concerned, but declined to obtain the release of Mortimer. This nobleman was the

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uncle of the young Earl of March, who was the legitimate heir to the throne, and Henry very reasonably suspected him of unfriendly feelings toward his dynasty, or at least as a dangerous person to be at liberty. He was therefore but little chagrined when Sir Edmund was taken by the Welsh chief, and manifested no hurry to disturb a status favorable to his own safety. But the result proved that he had not, in this instance, reckoned wisely. Henry Percy, known more familiarly as Hotspur, had married Elizabeth Mortimer, the sister of Sir Edmund. The refusal of the King to secure the freedom of his brother-in-law incensed the impetuous baron, who was already angry because he had been deprived of the Scottish ransoms. The Percys were the proudest as well as the most powerful of the English barons. were prompt to resent insults, independent of restraint, and easily crossed in will. They looked with reason upon the establishment of Henry on the throne of Richard, as their work. That a usurper who depended upon them for his crown and safety, should obstinately deprive them of their ransoms bravely won in hard-fought conflicts-more than all, that he should refuse to consent to the liberation of their near kinsman, seemed to them an atrocious breach of faith and gratitude, and a just ground for bidding defiance to his authority. Henry should certainly have been more jealous of the relations he maintained with so potent a house, knowing how serious an evil to his dynasty their enmity would not fail to be. There was one member of the Percy family who had never given a cordial adhesion to the Lancastrian cause, and who now seized the opportunity to satisfy his long-hidden discontent. This