8. This represents a quarrel between Harold and Tosti, sons of Earl Godwin, and brothers-in-law of the Confessor. 9. This is a vision, in which the Confessor saw that the Seven Sleepers of Ephesus had all turned over from their right side to their left. This meant that dreadful troubles and disasters were to come upon the world for seventy years. 10, 12, and 13. These three pictures tell the beautiful story of the pilgrim’s ring. One day the Confessor met a poor pilgrim who asked an alms, and as the old book tells it, “the king is in distress because neither gold nor silver he finds at hand. And he reflects, remains silent, looks at his hand, and remembers that on his finder he had a cherished ring, which was large, royal, and beautiful. To the poor man he gives it, for the love of St. John his dear lord: and he takes it with joy, and gently gives him thanks; and when he was possessed of it he departed and vanished.” Some time after, two English pilgrims from Ludlow were travelling in Palestine, and they met an old man “white and hoary, brighter than the sun at midday,” who showed them kindness and entertained them hospitably. He told them that he was John the Evangelist, and that he had a special love for the King of their country. He then gave them back the ring, and bade them restore it to King Edward, who had given it to him when he was disguised as a poor pilgrim. They were also to tell the King that in six months’ time he would be with St. John in Paradise. The pilgrims returned to England, and the thirteenth carving shows them bringing back the ring and delivering the message, whereupon the King began to prepare himself for his death. These stories, together with others told of Edward’s kindness to the sick and to the leper, show us the power of this simple goodness and piety, and explain why the Confessor’s memory was so much loved and revered. His tomb has been the centre round which not only many of our Kings and Queens, but gradually most of our best and greatest men, have been laid to rest. At the time of King Edward VII’s Coronation a covering, or “pall”, in red velvet and gold was placed over the upper part of the Confessor’s shrine, where it still remains. Round the edge of the pall is embroidered a beautiful Latin inscription, which runs as follows— “_Deo carus Rex Edwardus non mortuus est, sed cum XPO viaturus de morte ad vitam migravit._” “King Edward, dear to God, has not died, but has passed from death to life, to live with Christ.” [Illustration: [_G. A. Dunn._ RICHARD II. ] CHAPTER IV THE PLANTAGENETS OF THE DIRECT LINE FROM HENRY III TO RICHARD II, 1216–1399