He sent for Gourdon, and asked him, "Wretch, what have I ever done to you, to oblige you to seek my life ?" "What have you done to me ?" replied coolly the prisoner: "you killed with your own hands my father, and my two brothers; and you intended to have hanged myself: I am now in your power, and you may take revenge by inflicting on me the most severe torments; but I shall endure them all with pleasure, provided I can think that I have been so happy as to rid the world of such a nuisance,"[***] Richard, struck with the reasonableness of this reply, and humbled by the near approach of death, ordered Gourdon to be set at liberty, and a sum of money to be given him; but Marcadee, unknown to him, seized the unhappy man, flayed him alive, and then hanged him.

Richard died in the tenth year of his reign, and the forty-second of his age; and he left no issue behind him.
[* Hoveden, p.791.Knyghton, p.

2413.] [** Hoveden, p.791.Knyghton, p.

2413.] [*** Hoveden, p.791.Brompton, p.

1277 Knyghton, p.