upon the most
trumpery temporal of the Bishop of Lincoln. His anathema meant death.
For nine months Richard hounded his minions on, but they dared not bite.
Instead they beseeched the bishop's pity for their unhappy position, and
he resolved to seek the king and talk him over. He had no friend at
Court to prepare his way. Fine old William Earl Marshall and the Earl of
Albemarle tried to stop him or to make some way for him; but he did not
allow them to sacrifice themselves, but sent word to the king that he
was coming. Two things had happened since that December. Innocent III.
had become Pope--the Augustus of the papal empire, and he was already
acting most vigorously and unhesitatingly. Secondly, Hubert Walter had
resigned, because the Pope took Lincoln views of bishops being judges,
councillors, treasurers, and the like. These things made Hugh's chances
more favourable. Richard's wrath, too, was a straw fire, and it had time
to cool, and cooled quicklier because it had shocked his English
subjects. Moreover, though highly abominable as he considered the
Bishop's checkmate, he had got the cash after all by breaking the great
seal and having a new one made, which necessitated a new sealing of all
old parchments, and royal wax is dear to this day. It would, therefore,
not be amiss to smooth those English who were smarting at the broken
seal and broken faith. Hugh's chances, then, were not quite desperate,
although he had been able to stop the mouth of the Lion for nine whole
months by his intrepidity, fame, and the help of heaven. The rest of
the story, which is given minutely, gives one a little window into the
times hard to equal for its clearness.

FOOTNOTES:

{7} Plato's Aristocrat has a son, who is a great timocrat.

{8} "South-east of the Great Bar Gate between that and the little Bar
Gate in the north-west angle of the Great South Common."

{9} Perhaps for both reasons chosen as the trysting-place.

CHAPTER VI

IN TROUBLES--

The king had before this time noticed a spot of immense military
importance on the Seine between Rouen and Paris, the rock of Andelys.
Indeed he had once tossed three Frenchmen from the rock. It was, or
might be, the key to Normandy on the French side, and he feared lest
Philip should seize upon it and use it against him. Consequently he
pounced upon it, and began to fortify it at lavish expense. Archbishop
Walter of Rouen, and late of Lincoln, in whose ecclesiastical patri