Master Richard was taken back again by two of the men-at-arms into the
parlour where he had lately seen the King, and was allowed to stand by
the window, looking out upon the river, while one fellow kept one door,
and one the other.

He strove to keep quiet interiorly, keeping his eyes fixed upon the
broad river in the sunshine and the trees on the other side, and his
heart established on God's Will. He did not know then what kind of a fit
it was into which the King had fallen, nor why it was that himself
should be blamed for it; and when he spoke to the men they gave him
nothing but black looks, and one blessed himself repeatedly, with his
lips moving.

There came the sound of talking from the inner room, and once or twice
the sound of glass on glass. Without it was a fair day, very hot and
with no clouds.

Master Richard told me that he had no fear, neither now nor afterwards;
it seemed to him as if all had been done before; he said it was as if he
were one in a play, whose part and words are all assigned beforehand,
as well as the parts and words of the others, by the will of the
writer; so that when violence is done, or injustice, or hard words
spoken, or death suffered, it is all part of the agreed plan and must
not be resisted nor questioned, else all will be spoiled. It appeared to
him too as if the ankret in the cell were privy to it all, and were
standing, observing and approving; for Master Richard remembered what
the holy man had said as to the five wounds marked upon the linen, and
how he would not need to wear them much longer.

* * * * *