It was at times like this, when a man stands naked confronting his purpose, that one saw the hag riding on the back of Anjou.
He was not thinking of it now, but the truth is that there had hardly been a time in his short life when he had not been his father's open enemy.

He could have told you that it had not been always his fault, though he would never have told you.

But I say that what he, a youth of thirty, had made of his inheritance was as nothing to that elder's wasting of his.

In moments of hot rage Richard knew this, and justified himself; but the melting hour came again when he heaped all reproach upon himself, believing that but for such and such he might have loved this rooted, terrible old man who assuredly loved not him.

Richard was neither mule nor jade; he was open to persuasion on two sides.
Compunction was one: you could touch him on the heart and bring him weeping to his knees; affection was another: if he loved the petitioner he yielded handsomely.