Count of Flanders, his brothers Richard and Geoffrey, the Counts of Blois and Champagne, and all the nobles of Henry's dominions on both sides of the water, should bind themselves to stand by his father, and take part against himself, in case of his infringing the convention* then made.

This transaction took place at the Castle of Bure, on the 1st of April, 1175. The tranquillity of the King of England seemed now to be established on a foundation not to be shaken; and he suffered his son once more to visit his father-in-law the King of France, although that monarch was assuredly the most dangerous counsellor which the English prince could meet. No evil, however, resulted at the time; and the younger Henry rejoining his father very speedily, they appeared together during the festivities of Easter, at the town of Cherbourg, displaying towards each other every sign of renewed affection and confidence. They thence proceeded to Caen,

* The letter in which Henry announced these facts to his English Parliament, held at Westminster shortly after, is preserved by Diceto.

We are told that they ate at the same table and slept in the same bed. The young Henry could not have been long absent from his father, if at all, as Easter-day happened on the 13th of April, and they were then certainly at Cherbourg, having been at Bure, near Caen, on the 1st of the month. After some hesitation, I have admitted the visit of the younger Henry to the King of France into the text, because Lord Lyttleton has admitted it; but it is to be remarked that Hoveden says nothing of such a journey at this time, and the more I study the

in order to meet the Count of Flanders, who desired an interview with the two English princes. The

work of that writer, the more I am inclined to trust with confidence to his statements, especially regarding the reign of Henry the Second. He is accused of having borrowed very largely from Benedict, Abbot of Peterborough ; but after the strictest examination, I am not disposed to believe that this charge is at all just, as far as regards the reign of Henry the Second, during the course of which he had far greater opportunities of knowing what really took place than the Abbot himself possessed; for Benedict, till he became Abbot of Peterborough, remained almost always at Canterbury, while Hoveden was attached immediately to the King's court, enjoyed his full confidence, and was, shortly before this period, employed by him in a very important negociation. Benedict was in the first instance a monk, and as such mingled but little with the world. He was attached, however, to Richard Archbishop of Canterbury, who succeeded Becket, and was named his chancellor, on his elevation. In this situation he remained during the difficulties which the Archbishop had to encounter from the opposition of the young King Henry, and I believe that he accompanied the prelate to Rome. After the confirmation of the Archbishop's election by the Pope, Benedict was chosen Prior of Canterbury, the former Prior, Odo, having been removed to the Abbacy of St. Martin. wards appointed Abbot of Peterborough in 1177. he had very little opportunity of knowing much from his own observation, at all events before the year 1177. As there must have been some communication between him and Hoveden, however, it is likely that he derived his facts-till the beginning of the reign of Richard, when he himself obtained greater facilities for observation,-from Henry's chaplain, and put them into more elegant language, rather than that Hoveden took his materials from a person who had less opportunities of real knowledge than himself, and then barbarised that which

He was after

Thus, in fact,

motive of his coming is somewhat differently stated by contemporary writers, and it is very probable that more than one inducement led him to the conference at Caen. He had assumed the cross some short time before in the great church of St. Peter, at Ghent; and the English authors of that day uniformly declare, that the cause of this act, which bound him to go in arms to the Holy Land, was remorse for the part he had taken in the war against Henry. The Flemish historians, however, attribute his crusade merely to zeal for religion; and it is very probable that such a cause might operate in some degree. Nor is it unlikely that one of his objects in coming to meet the King of England at Caen, was to make some atonement for the offence he had committed, although it is certain that another was, to regain the pension which he had formerly received from Henry, and to renew his alliance with a powerful monarch whom he had so justly offended. However that may be, in the conference which now took place, he gave up into the hands of the two Kings the charter of donation with which the younger Henry had weakly purchased his cöoper

he stole. After the coronation of Richard, at which Benedict was present, his authority is undoubtedly great, as he spoke probably from his own knowledge, and very likely the chaplain borrowed a part from him relative to the subsequent events, Hoveden himself having, by that time, retired from the world, and devoted himself to the composition of his history.-See Gervase and Diceto.

ation, and formally freed that prince from all engagements to himself. In return the treaty was renewed which had been entered into several years before the commencement of the war between Henry II. and the Flemish sovereign,—and the Count retired with the assurance that his territories would be safe during his absence on the crusade. His remorse for the blood which had been shed, and his purpose of visiting the tomb of his Redeemer, did not prevent him from committing a fearful act of cruelty before he went,-if the account of Diceto is to be believed. He is stated, immediately after his return from the conference at Caen, to have taken one Walter des Fontaines in adultery with the Countess his wife; and notwithstanding the example of patience set before him by his ally the King of France, we are assured, he put the adulterer to death in the most inhuman and barbarous manner. In the meantime, Henry and his eldest son returned to England; and the first unhappy rebellion of Richard against his father being now at an end, I shall pause to notice several events which took place during the years 1173, 1174, and 1175, which give us some insight into the state and progress of society at that time.

The simplicity of the first ages of chivalry was at an end, and a more gorgeous and ostentatious epoch was now beginning. The generosity and liberality which had been inculcated as virtues of a prin

cipal order, had now deviated into profusion and extravagance. The arms and clothing of the knights were of the most sumptuous and costly description. Their shields were covered with gold, and painted or enamelled with various colours; their tents also were ornamented in every different way that their fancy could devise; the crests of their helmets blazed with the precious metals, and sometimes with jewels; and the robes and the surcoats which they wore, were formed of the richest silks and cendals, of scarlet and every other bright and dazzling hue. Fine linen, which was then a rarity, was eagerly sought amongst them; and we find from John of Salisbury, that it was becoming the custom in that day to make the garments of the male part of society, when not absolutely in the field, fit so tightly to the body as to resemble a skin. At the great meetings of princes, every sort of pageantry and luxury was displayed; and in the year 1174 one of those conferences occurred, in which splendour and profusion were carried to an excess that more resembled some of the wild follies of the Roman tyrants or the extravagant pomp of eastern barbarians, than anything that modern Europe has produced. In the course of that year, the Count of Toulouse, as much, in all probability, with the design of being absent from a scene of warfare, where he might have been. obliged to take part with one of two princes to each of whom he had done homage, as for the