OF THE CRACKLING OF THORNS UNDER POTS Just as no two pots will boil alike, so with men; they seethe in trouble with a difference.

With one the grief is taken inly: this was Richard's kind.

The French King was feverish, the Marquess explosive, John of England all eyes and alarms.

So Richard's remedy for trouble was action, Philip's counsel, the Marquess's a glut of hatred, and John's plotting.
The consequence is, that in the present vexed state of things Richard threw off his discontent with his bedclothes, and at once took the lead of the others, because it could be done at once.

He declared open war against the King his father, despatching heralds with the cartel the same day; he gave King Philip to understand that the French power might be for him or against him as seemed fitting, but that no power in heaven or on earth would engage him to marry Dame Alois.