exile, while the chief ringleaders, (except Northampton who was
condemned at Reading upon the evidence of his clerk) had restored
themselves to court favour by acknowledging their crime, and now
forgot the integrity and resolution of Chaucer, who suffered exile to
secure their secrets; and so monstrously ungrateful were they, that
they wished his death, and by keeping supplies of money from him,
endeavoured to effect it;--While he expended his fortune in removing
from place to place, and in supporting his fellow exiles, so far from
receiving any assistance from England, his apartments were let, and
the money received for rent was never acccounted for to him; nor could
he recover any from those who owed it him, they being of opinion
it was impossible for him ever to return to his own country. The
government still pursuing their resentment against him and his
friends, they were obliged to leave Zealand, and Chaucer being unable
to bear longer the calamities of poverty and exile, and finding no
security wherever he fled, chose rather to throw himself upon the laws
of his country, than perish abroad by hunger and oppression. He had
not long returned till he was arrested by order of the king, and
confined in the tower of London. The court sometimes flattered
him with the return of the royal favour if he would impeach his
accomplices, and sometimes threatened him with immediate destruction;
their threats and promises he along while disregarded, but
recollecting the ingratitude of his old friends, and the miseries he
had already suffered, he at last made a confession, and according to
the custom of trials at that time, offered to prove the truth of it by
combat. What the consequence of this discovery was to his accomplices,
is uncertain, it no doubt exposed him to their resentment, and
procured him the name of a traytor; but the king, who regarded him as
one beloved by his grandfather, was pleased to pardon him. Thus fallen
from a heighth of greatness, our poet retired to bemoan the fickleness