father, in feebleness, inconsistency, and
irresolution. The best that caii be said of him is
that he was not cruel. DE ROCHES coming
home again, after ten years, and being a
novelty, the King began to favor him and
to look coldly on Hubert. Wanting money
besides, and having made Hubert rich, he
began to dislike Hubert. At last he was
made to believe, or pretended to believe,
that Hubert had misappropriated some of
the Royal treasure; and ordered him to
furnish an account of all he had done in his
administration. Besides which, the foolish
charge was brought against Hubert that he
had made himself the King's favorite by
magic! Hubert very well knowing that he
could never defend himself against such
nonsense, and that his old enemy must be
determined on his ruin, instead of answering
the charges fled to Merton Abbey. Then
the King, in a violent passion, sent for
the Mayor of London, of all men in the
world, and said to the Mayor, "Take twenty
thousand citizens, and drag me Hubert
de Burgh out of that abbey, and bring
him here." The Mayor posted off to do it,
but the Archbishop of Dublin (who was a
friend of Hubert's) warning the King that an
abbey was a sacred place, and that if he
committed any violence there, he must answer
for it to the Church, the King changed his
mind and called the Mayor back, and declared
that Hubert should have four months to
prepare for his defence, and should be safe
and free during that time.

Hubert, who relied upon the King's word,
though I think he was old enough to have
known better, came out of Merton Abbey upon
these conditions, and journeyed away to see
his wife, a Scottish Princess who was then at
St. Edmund's Bury. Almost as soon as he
had departed from the Sanctuary, his enemies
persuaded the weak King to send out one
SIR GODFREY DE CRANCUMB, who commanded
three hundred vagabonds called the Black
Band, with orders to seize him. They came
up with him at a little town in Essex called
Brentwood, when he was in bed. He leaped
out of bed, got out of the house, fled to the
church, ran up to the altar, and laid his hand
upon the cross. Sir Godfrey and the Black
Band, caring neither for church, altar, nor
cross, dragged him forth to the church door,
with their drawn swords flashing round his
head and sent for a Smith to rivet a set of
chains upon him. When the Smith (I wish I
knew his name! ) was brought, all dark and
swarthy with the smoke of his forge, and
panting with the speed he had made; and the
Black Band falling aside to show him the
Prisoner, cried with a loud uproar, "Make
the fetters heavy! make them strong!"
the Smith dropped upon his knee—but not
to them—and said, "This is the brave Earl
Hubert de Burgh, who fought at Dover Castle,
and destroyed the French fleet, and has done
his country much good service. You may
kill me, if you like, but I will never make a
chain for Earl Hubert de Burgh!"

The Black Band never blushed, or they
might have blushed at this. They knocked
the Smith about from one to another, and
swore at him, and tied the Earl on horseback,
undressed as he was, and carried him off to
the Tower of London. The Bishops, however,
were so indignant at the violation of the
Sanctuary of the Church, that the frightened King
soon ordered the Black Band to take him
back again; at the same time commanding
the Sheriff of Essex to prevent his escaping
out of Brentwood church. Well! the Sheriff
dug a deep trench all round the church,
and erected a high fence, and watched the
church night and day; the Black Band and
their Captain watched it too, like three
hundred and one black wolves. For thirty-nine
days, Hubert de Burgh remained within.
At length, upon the fortieth day, cold and
hunger were too much for him, and he
gave himself up to the Black Band, who
carried him off, for the second time, to the
Tower. When his trial came on, he refused
to plead; but at last it was arranged that he
should give up all the royal lands that had
been bestowed upon him, and should be kept at
the Castle of Devizes, in what was called "free
prison," in charge of four knights appointed
by four lords. There, he remained almost a
year, until, learning that a follower of his old
enemy the Bishop was made Keeper of the
Castle, and fearing that he might be killed by
treachery, he climbed the ramparts one dark
night, dropped from the top of the high Castle
wall into the moat, and coming safely to the
ground took refuge in another church. From
this place he was delivered by a party of horse
despatched to his help by some nobles, who
were by this time in revolt against the King,
and assembled in Wales. He was finally
pardoned and restored to his estates, but he
lived privately, and never more aspired to
a high post in the realm, or to a high place in
the King's favor. And thus end—more
happily than the stories of many favorites of Kings
—the adventures of Earl Hubert de Burgh.

The nobles, who had risen in revolt, were
stirred up to rebellion by the overbearing
conduct of the Bishop of Winchester, who,
finding that the King secretly hated the Great
Charter which had been forced from his
father, did his utmost to confirm him in that
dislike, and in the preference he shewed to
foreigners over the English. Of this, and of
his even publicly declaring that the Barons of
England were inferior to those of France, the
English Lords complained with such bitterness,
that the King, finding them well supported by
the clergy, became frightened for his throne,
and sent away the Bishop and all his foreign
associates. On his marriage, however, with
ELEANOR, a French lady, the daughter of the
Count of Provence, he openly favored the
foreigners again; and so many of his wife's
relations came over, and made such an im-