If one wish could be granted me now, he thought, I know what it would be. Death.


* * *

It was a wild night on the 14th of February. No one was about. Even if the curfew had not kept people in the weather would.

Thomas Swynford came stealthily into the room. He knew it could not be long now. His prisoner had eaten nothing for many a day. He was fast fading away.

How the wind howled as though for a soul in torment!

It cannot be long now, thought Thomas Swynford. Today … tomorrow … I shall be sending my news to the King.

He tiptoed to the pallet. There he lay, the once handsome King, the proud Plantagenet.

The last wish of Richard of Bordeaux had been granted.

He was dead, and the throne was safe for Henry of Bolingbroke.

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