was victorious, and in which all parties
plundered, tortured, starved, and ruined them.

Five years had passed since the death of Henry the First--and during
those five years there had been two terrible invasions by the people of
Scotland under their King, David, who was at last defeated with all his
army--when Matilda, attended by her brother Robert and a large force,
appeared in England to maintain her claim. A battle was fought between
her troops and King Stephen's at Lincoln; in which the King himself was
taken prisoner, after bravely fighting until his battle-axe and sword
were broken, and was carried into strict confinement at Gloucester.
Matilda then submitted herself to the Priests, and the Priests crowned
her Queen of England.

She did not long enjoy this dignity. The people of London had a great
affection for Stephen; many of the Barons considered it degrading to be
ruled by a woman; and the Queen's temper was so haughty that she made
innumerable enemies. The people of London revolted; and, in alliance
with the troops of Stephen, besieged her at Winchester, where they took
her brother Robert prisoner, whom, as her best soldier and chief general,
she was glad to exchange for Stephen himself, who thus regained his
liberty. Then, the long war went on afresh. Once, she was pressed so
hard in the Castle of Oxford, in the winter weather when the snow lay
thick upon the ground, that her only chance of escape was to dress
herself all in white, and, accompanied by no more than three faithful
Knights, dressed in like manner that their figures might not be seen from
Stephen's camp as they passed over the snow, to steal away on foot, cross
the frozen Thames, walk a long distance, and at last gallop away on
horseback. All this she did, but to no great purpose then; for her
brother dying while the struggle was yet going on, she at last withdrew
to Normandy.

In two or three years after her withdrawal her cause appeared in England,
afresh, in the person of her son Henry, young Plantagenet, who, at only
eighteen years of age, was very powerful: not only on account of his
mother having resigned all Normandy to him, but also from his having
married ELEANOR, the divorced wife of the French King, a bad woman, who
had great possessions in France. Louis, the French King, not relishing
this arrangement, helped EUSTACE, King Stephen's son, to invade Normandy:
but Henry drove their united forces out of that country, and then