miserably tortured; and by such acts he changed the face of the country, from peace and quiet, and joy and merriment, into a scene of grief and lamentation. When, after a time, these proceedings were reported to the king, he collected his followers in great force, and proceeded by forced marches to check the barbarities of William de Mohun1. But when he halted before the entrance of the castle, and saw the immense strength of its position, inaccessible on one side where it was washed by the sea, and fortified on the other by towers and walls with a ditch and outworks, he totally despaired of carrying it by storm; and, a wiser counsel prevailing, he established a fortified post within sight of the enemy, by means of which he proposed to restrain their incursions and give security to the neighbouring country. The king, therefore, gave orders to Henry de Tracy, a good knight of much experience in war, that, acting on his behalf, as he himself was wanted in other quarters, he should with all speed and vigour make head against the enemy. Henry, therefore, in the king's absence and furnished with the royal licence, drew out from Barnstaple, his own town, and made such resolute attacks on William de Mohun's retainers, that he not only checked their usual expeditions through the country, and restrained their plundering inroads, but he took 104 horse-soldiers in a single encounter. At length he so reduced and humbled William, that he desisted from attacking him any more, and left the country in tranquillity and entirely free from his disturbances.

Henry de Tracy, by his valour, not only reduced William de Mohun, but other obstinate perverters of the country and disturbers of the king's peace. Among these, especially, was William Fitz-Odo, a man of vast possessions and great wealth, who frugally managed his estates as long as there was peace, taking not even a twig from his neighbours, nor even the smallest customary gift from any man whatever; but when the troubles broke out, he also took arms against the king along with the rest. But Henry, acting with vigour on the king's behalf, enfeebled him by frequent encounters, and after a time it was reported to him

I William de Mohun, or Moiun, was lord of Dunster castle, the situation of which on the shore of the Bristol Channel is well described in this and a preceding paragraph, as its ruins still show.

by his scouts that William's castle was left empty by his soldiers who had gone out to plunder. Approaching it, therefore, with a party of his followers in the silence of the night, and evading the watch, he stealthily crept close to the castle, and, throwing lighted brands through the apertures of the towers, set fire to the chambers within. The lord of the castle was taken half burnt, and all his possessions, with immense hoards of money, by the king's permission, fell to the lot of Henry. On many other Occasions he encountered the king's adversaries with courage and fidelity, as I shall relate in this history in the proper place.

While these disturbances of different kinds were taking place throughout England, Baldwin,' a man it is said of gentle birth, and an Englishman, who had been driven into banishment by the king, landed at Wareham with a bold and spirited band of soldiers, and being let into Corfe Castle, one of the strongest places in all England, he and his followers prepared themselves to hold it stoutly against the king, who, report said, was at hand. No sooner, indeed, was the king informed by his adherents of Baldwin's arrival, than he put himself without a moment's delay at the head of such of his people as could be soonest mustered, and appeared suddenly before the castle for the purpose of besieging Baldwin. He spent much time there in the attempt to distress the enemy with his engines of war, or to reduce them by famine; but at last, on good counsel, he raised the siege and permitted Baldwin to go unmolested, the more so as he received intelligence that Robert, earl of Gloucester, and his sister, the determined pretenders to his kingdom, had combined their forces and were on the point of invading England. Being anxious that they should not effect a landing unawares, he gave orders that all the ports should be watched day and night, thinking it of more importance to oppose with his utmost efforts the chiefs of the enemy's party, than that, while devoting his whole attention to Baldwin, he should suffer them to obtain a

1 Baldwin de Rivers, whose conduct during and after the siege of Exeter forms a leading feature in the early part of our author's narrative. See before, pp. 337 to 344. It will be recollected that he was exiled and took refuge at the court of the Count of Anjou.

footing against him. But it is written, learning and wisdom, and prudence and counsel, are nothing against the Lord; and human cunning cannot escape what has been ordained by Providence. We know that subjects are scourged sometimes for their own, sometimes for their rulers' transgressions; as it is recorded that the people of Israel, who had often offended God, were frequently punished by wars and pestilence, and that for the adulteries of Solomon and David the people were in the one case plagued by the hand of an angel, in the other grievously vexed by their enemies.

The English nation, lost in luxury and idleness, enervated by excess and drunkenness, and puffed up with pride and arrogance, had often provoked God's anger; and their great men, pursuing this scandalous course of life, abandoned themselves still more grossly to every sort of illicit connection, and to all superfluity of eating and drinking, to everything, in short, which is most vicious and most destructive to the soul, without restraint and without penitence. Thus the Almighty was greatly displeased with them, and his wrath was stirred up against them, and it was no wonder that England was torn by so many dissensions, wasted by internal wars, and stained everywhere by crimes: for it is an admitted truth that grievous sins can only be expiated by severe punishments, and that the more a man is abandoned to wickedness, the more he is fitted for suffering its consequences. Thus it was said to Babylon, "Forasmuch as she was highly exalted and in great prosperity, so shall be her torments and her lamentations." Hence it arose that although Stephen had devoted all his military skill to the restoration of peace in his realm, although he had been indefatigable in leading his troops against the enemy, all his unceasing efforts were of no avail; because, to use the words of the prophet, in all that had happened, "the anger of the Lord was not turned away, and his hand was stretched out still;" and his grievous indignation vexed them more and more, until Gomorrah should fill her cup of offences, and the Ethiopian change his skin; so He hardened Himself without mercy against all the inhabitants of England.

While the king's attention was directed to other quarters, though he had given orders that the harbours on the coast should be strictly guarded, Robert, earl of Gloucester, and

his sister the Countess of Anjou, landing at Arundel with a strong body of soldiers, were received into the castle and hospitably entertained'. All England was struck with alarm, and men's minds were agitated in various ways: those who either secretly or openly favoured the invaders were roused to more than usual activity against the king, while his own partisans were terrified as if a thunderbolt had fallen. But the king, who had never despaired in all the mischances of the wars and insurrections, now with unshaken firmness, and without a moment's delay, put himself at the head of a light-armed and disciplined body of troops, and by forced marches appeared boldly before the castle of Arundel. There, learning from his trusty scouts that the earl had got away by night, and was on his road to Bristol, but that his sister, with her followers from Anjou, still remained in the castle where she had disembarked, he left part of his troops to prevent her escape during his absence, and pursued the earl with the rest, intent on making him prisoner. Finding, however, that he could not accomplish his purpose -for the earl had not gone by the high road, but had betaken himself to bye ways-he quickly retraced his steps for the purpose of continuing the siege of those who were blockaded in the castle. Meanwhile, the Bishop of Winchester, hearing of their arrival, caused all the cross-roads to be beset by troops, and at last, as report was, encountering the earl, entered into amicable relations with him, and allowed him to proceed without opposition. This report, however, contradicts all sound conclusions; and it is utterly incredible that the king's brother should receive with a friendly embrace the invader of his brother's kingdom, and should permit him to pass unmolested while he was bent on urging the most serious pretensions to the crown. The bishop, however, joined the king with a numerous retinue of knights and men-at-arms, as if he had not fallen in with the earl; and finding that the king was determined on pressing

1 The earl and his sister the countess landed, August 31, at Arundel, where she was kindly received, at first, by her mother-in-law, the queendowager of Henry I. Malmesbury says that the earl had only 150 horsemen with him, of whom twelve "scarcely" formed his retinue in his subsequent march across the country to Bristol. Malmesbury considers the earl to have been not inferior in undaunted bravery to Julius Cæsar.

the siege, he represented that his policy was as unacceptable to him as it would be to the kingdom. For while the king sat down to blockade the Countess of Anjou in one corner of the kingdom, her brother would speedily raise an insurrection and disturb the country in another quarter; so that it would be more advisable for himself, and tend more to the public advantage, to allow her to join her brother without hindrance, that both, with their respective forces, being thus united at one point, he might attempt to crush them with greater facility, and might combine all his own troops in an immediate and sharp attack of their position. A safe conduct was therefore given, ratified by oaths, for the countess to have free passage to her brother; the king trusting that he could defeat them with greater ease when both were confined to one part of the country. On their arrival at Bristol they announced their arrival to all the barons of the realm, intreating them, devoutly and sorrowfully, to come to their aid, and promising honorary rewards to some, to others an augmentation of their domains, while they required all to accomplish their object by every means in their power. Accordingly, all their adherents, who had hitherto paid a faithless and hollow submission to the king, breaking their oaths and the fealty they had pledged him, came over to the earl and countess, and with one mind entering into a league against the king, rose against him in all quarters with great vehemence.

There was at that time one Brian Fitz-Count, a man of illustrious descent and high dignity, who, being greatly elated at the late arrival, strengthened his castle at Wallingford with a numerous body of troops, and broke into active and determined rebellion against the king. Milo, also, lord of Gloucester, of whom I have already given a short notice, falsifying the fealty which he had sworn to the king, set himself against him with great resolution, and taking into his service all the king's enemies who flocked to him, desolated the whole of the districts adjoining the county of Gloucester. And now as far as the remotest borders of England, vast herds of cattle were driven off, and all those who were known to be faithful and loyal to the king were harassed with fire and sword: in one place the king and his adherents were continually betrayed by