No, Bolingbroke: if ever I were traitor,
My name be blotted from the book of life,
And I from heaven banish'd as from hence!
But what thou art, God, thou, and I do know;
And all too soon, I fear, the king shall rue.
(I.iii.201-205)
The Duke of Norfolk is the first to foresee Richard's fall. There are two indications here of Norfolk's innocence of the charges against him. First is the strong oath he takes, his prayer that he may be eternally damned if he is guilty. The second is that he is right about Hereford. The King does in fact live to regret what Bolingbroke is--namely, a bad man who is aiming at the throne. Norfolk knows that he himself is true to Richard and Bolingbroke false. He suspects that Bolingbroke's next victim will be the King.
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