haughty and grasping Archbishop could fall by an easy transition into the odour of sanctity, or that miracles could be performed by the dead body of a man, whose whole life had been passed either in worldly pleasures or ambitious contentions. Under this view of the case, Henry certainly displayed weakness enough, without attributing to him a prostration of mind which could only stamp a fool; or duplicity of conduct, which could alone characterise a knave. After having endured the scourging of monks and bishops, and passed the night on the pavement of Canterbury cathedral in prayers and penances, Henry rose on the morning of the Sunday with apparent confidence in the efficacy of the atonement he had made, and proceeded to London; where, whatever might be the condition of his mind, his body, notwithstanding its great strength, yielded to the combination of stripes, fasting, watching and fatigue; and the very moment he should have been commanding his armies in the field, he was deprived by illness of his usual activity.

Such was the state of the monarch, and such the bad aspect of his affairs, when suddenly, in the midst of the night, the porter of the royal palace was awakened by a loud knocking at the gates, and having been prevailed upon with great difficulty to open them, he found a young courier on a tired and foaming horse, demanding instant admission to the King. The monarch's chamberlains being

roused, all the information they could obtain from the importunate messenger was, that he bore good news, and must instantly see the King. He prevailed upon them at length to lead him to Henry's chamber, where he boldly approached his bed, and woke him from his sleep.

"Who are you?" demanded the King, in astonishment.

"I am the page," replied the boy, "of your faithful Ranulph de Glanville, by whom I am sent to your highness, to bear you good news."

“Goes it all well with our Ranulph?" demanded the King.

"Quite well,” replied the boy; " and lo! he holds your enemy the King of Scotland in chains, at Richmond."

The King was as one thunder-struck;* but the boy brought with him letters, which showed him the following facts.

Enraged beyond endurance at the excesses committed by the King of Scotland,, and knowing by reports received from all quarters, that he had divided his army, and retained with him but a small force at the siege of Alnwick, the noblemen of Yorkshire determined to attack him, and, if

* I, like other authors, have copied this statement almost literally from the graphic account of William of Newbury. The facts, however, are fully confirmed by other writers, though they do not present to our eyes the same picture of the first intimation received by Henry of this great success.

possible, to drive him beyond the border. As nothing could be hoped from any other course of action but a sudden assault, Robert de Stuteville, Ranulph de Glanville, Bernard de Baliol, and William de Vesci, who were the leaders of the enterprise, determined to employ no foot soldiers, but began their march at the head of a considerable body of cavalry, comprising, we are told, four hundred knights. As they approached nearer to Alnwick, however, doubts began to take possession of the chiefs, on finding that the King of Scotland had more than eight thousand* men-atarms with him; but upon further consultation it was agreed to proceed, especially as it was evident, from the intelligence they received, that the enemy had no expectation of an approaching attack.

They accordingly set out from Newcastle very early in the morning of Saturday, the 13th of July, and proceeded with such speed, notwith

* In some copies of William of Newbury the number is stated differently, the Scotch army being there made to amount to eighty thousand. This is indeed the case in the best edition by Hearne, in 1719. I have chosen the lowest number, because it seems to me scarcely possible that eighty thousand men should have remained with the King of Scotland at Alnwick, when we find from other authors, that two-thirds of his army had been detached to ravage the country in different directions.

The date of Henry's arrival in England, as given in the printed copies of Diceto, must be incorrect, though probably not by his own fault, but by that either of the transcriber or the printer; for it is by his own words that we are able to rectify the

standing the weight of their armour, that they came within a short distance of Alnwick at the end of five hours. A mist, however, had in the mean

mistake, He says, that the Bishop of Winchester found Henry at Bonneville, in Normandy, on the festival of St. John; and yet he is made to say, a little further onward, that the King set out for England on the 8th ides of June, or the 6th of that month. Now the festival of St. John is on the 24th of June, showing that the word Junii should have been written Julii, as it stands in Hoveden. If farther proof were wanting, it would be found in the fact, that we have a letter of much importance in a commercial point of view, signed by Henry, still on the continent, at a great distance from the coast, dated on the 26th of May in that year. There is some difficulty also in regard to the date of the capture of the King of Scots; for the expressions of both Hoveden and Diceto would lead one to imagine that it could not be so late as the 13th of July. One of those authors says, that Henry proceeded to Canterbury on the day after his arrival at Southampton, and passed the same night at Becket's tomb;-the other, that he went from Southampton to Canterbury with great speed; and all writers agree, that the King of Scots was taken on the very same morning that saw Henry's devotions completed at Canterbury, which, according to Hoveden's account, would have been the 10th of July. All, however, agree that it was on a Saturday; and therefore the account of William of Newbury must be correct; for the 3rd of the ides of July, or the 13th of that month, which he gives as the date, fell in that year on a Saturday, which corresponds exactly with the account of Henry's voyage, which took place, we are uniformly told, on the 8th of July, which was the 8th ides of the month, and the second ferial of the week, or Monday. Thus Henry, instead of going to Canterbury in one day, or indeed with his usual celerity, and performing his devotions on the next, must have been four days on the road, or must have spent three days in Canterbury.

time fallen upon the country, so dense as well nigh to prevent them from seeing their way. In these circumstances, it was proposed by some of the party to return; but Bernard de Baliol exclaimed, "Go back who will; sooner than bring such a spot upon my name, I will go on if not one should follow me."

These words decided their proceedings; the whole body marched forward, and in a few minutes the mist suddenly dispersed, leaving Alnwick castle standing out in the clear sunshine before their eyes, with the King of Scotland himself at the head of a small troop of horse, exercising himself in chivalrous games, within a short distance of the head of their line. He had not more than sixty horsemen with him; but at first the Scottish monarch did not interrupt his sport, believing that the body of soldiers he saw approaching, was merely one of his own parties returning from the plunder of the neighbouring country. Speedily, however, the sight of the banner of England, borne in the van, undeceived him; but his heart was incapable of fear, and he might well imagine, that within a bow-shot of his own camp, he would not be suffered to fight unsupported. Without a moment's hesitation, he put his lance in the rest, exclaiming, "Now it shall be seen what it is to be a knight," and led his men on to the attack of the English forces.

So rash an act was more than Henry's officers