She related all that happened to her from the day when Clotald carried her off from Cadiz until her return thither; also Richard’s engagement with the Turks; his liberality to the Christians; the promise they had given each other to be husband and wife; the two years’ delay agreed on, and the news she had received of his death, which seemed to her so certain, as to have nearly occasioned her taking the veil!  She extolled the liberality of the queen of England, the Christian faith of Richard and his parents, and she concluded by saying, that Richard would relate what had happened to him since he left London until that moment, when he stood before them in the dress of a captive, and with the mark of having been ransomed by charity.  “I will do so,” said Richard, “and briefly relate the hardships I have undergone.

“I quitted London to avoid marrying Clisterna, the Scottish Catholic lady, to whom Isabella has told you that my parents wished to unite me, and I took with me Guillart, my page, the same who carried the news of my death to London, as my mother stated in her letter.  Passing through France, I arrived in Rome, where my soul was gladdened, and my faith fortified.  I kissed the feet of the supreme pontiff, confessed my sins to the grand penitentiary, obtained absolution, and received the necessary certificates of my confession and penance, and of the submission I had paid to our holy mother, the church.  This done, I visited the numberless holy places in that sacred city, and out of two thousand crowns I had with me in gold, I deposited one thousand six hundred with a money-changer, who gave me a letter of credit for them on one Roqui, a Florentine, in this city.  With the four hundred that remained, I set out for Spain, by way of Genoa, where I had heard that there were two galleys of that signory bound for this country.  I arrived with Guillart at a place called Aquapendente, which is the last town in the pope’s dominions on the road to Florence, and in an inn at which I alighted, I met Count Ernest, my mortal enemy.  He had four servants with him, he was disguised, and was going, as I understood, to Rome, not because he was a Catholic, but from motives of curiosity.  I thought he had not recognised me, and shut myself up in a room with my servant Guillart, where I remained on my guard, intending to shift my quarters at nightfall.  I did not do so, however, for the perfect indifference shown by the count and his servants made me confident that they had not recognised me.  I supped in my room, locked the door, looked to my sword, commended myself to God, but would not lie down.

“My servant lay asleep, and I sat on a chair between asleep and awake; but a little after midnight, I was near put to sleep for eternity by four pistol shots fired at me, as I afterwards learned, by the count and his servants.  They left me for dead, and their horses being in readiness, they rode off, telling the innkeeper to bury me suitably, for I was a man of quality.  My servant, awaking in terror at the noise, leaped out of a window, and ran away in such mortal fear, that it seems he never stopped till he got to London, for it was he brought the news of my death.