第51章 ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE THIRD,CALLED,OF WINCHESTER

Besides which,the foolish charge was brought against Hubert that he had made himself the King's favourite 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,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 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 the Black Band-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 which 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 favour.And thus end-more happily than the stories of many favourites 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 showed 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 favoured the foreigners again;and so many of his wife's relations came over,and made such an immense family-party at court,and got so many good things,and pocketed so much money,and were so high with the English whose money they pocketed,that the bolder English Barons murmured openly about a clause there was in the Great Charter,which provided for the banishment of unreasonable favourites.But,the foreigners only laughed disdainfully,and said,'What are your English laws to us?'