Crown Prince, in order to divert from himself the jealousy of his suspicious father, he had played a part like Brutus, spending his time idly and among loose companions; and that after he had ascended the throne they were ban ished from his presence. History knows nothing of this; but shows us the Prince in the service of his father, and performing his part as a good soldier, doing his best in slaughter and devas tation, like all the other heroes of his time. He had also as a friend in his youth a person seriously disposed, whose very presence repelled all frivolity. This man was Sir John Oldcastle, who is known to us as having afterwards suffered martyrdom as a follower of the reformed doctrine of Wycliffe. The Prince, after he had become king, fell outwith him on this account; and Sir John was handed over by the Church to suffer the cruelest death of a heretic.