were applied the wound grew daily more painful and its swelling and discoloration more ominous.[1285] A furious assault made by Mercadier on Châlus after the king was wounded had resulted in the capture of the castle and its defenders. Richard caused them all to be hanged, except the man who had shot him.[1286] He then despatched some of his troops to besiege two neighbouring castles, Nontron and Montagut, “for he purposed in his heart to destroy all the castles and towns of the viscount of Limoges.”[1287] Soon, however, he began to realize that his days were numbered. He wrote to his mother, who was at Fontevraud, asking her to come to him. Every precaution had been taken to prevent his condition becoming known outside the little group of four trusted nobles who alone were admitted to his presence;[1288] from these he now exacted an oath of fealty to John as his destined successor, to whom he devised the kingdom of England and all his other lands. He ordered that all his castles and three parts of his treasure should likewise be delivered to John; he bequeathed all his jewels to his nephew Otto of Germany, and the remaining fourth part of his treasure to be distributed among his servants and the poor.[1289] He sent for the captive crossbowman and questioned him: “What evil have I done to thee? Why hast thou slain me?” “Thou didst slay my father and my two brothers with thine own hand; thou wouldst have slain me likewise. Take on me what vengeance thou wilt; freely will I suffer the greatest torments thou canst think of, now that thou, who hast brought so many and so great evils on the world, art stricken to death.” Richard answered, “I forgive thee my death,” and ordered that the man should be liberated and sent away safely with a gift of a hundred English shillings.[1290] Then he called for a chaplain, made his confession and received the Holy Communion.[1291] By this time probably his mother was with him; she herself records that she was present at his death, and that he “placed all his trust, after God, in her, that she would make provision for his soul’s welfare with motherly care to the utmost of her power.”[1292] He made his own arrangements for the disposal of his body, ordering that his brain and some internal organs should be buried in the ancient Poitevin abbey of Charroux, his heart at Rouen, and the embalmed corpse at his father’s feet in the abbey church of Fontevraud.[1293] He [Sidenote: _April 6_] received Extreme Unction on April 6, the Tuesday in Passion week, “and as the day was closing, he also ended his earthly [Sidenote: _April 11_] day.”[1294] On Palm Sunday his body, wrapped in the robe in which he had been attired at his crown-wearing at Winchester five years before,[1295] was buried by his father’s old friend Bishop Hugh of Lincoln and his mother’s friend Abbot Luke of Torpenay in the place which he had chosen for it.[1296] His heart—said to be remarkable for its great size[1297]—was enclosed in