s of getting it. He set on foot another oppressing and torturing of
the unhappy Jews (which was quite in his way), and invented a now
punishment for one wealthy Jew of Bristol. Until such time as that Jew
should produce a certain large sum of money, the King sentenced him to be
imprisoned, and, every day, to have one tooth violently wrenched out of
his head--beginning with the double teeth. For seven days the oppressed man
bore the daily pain and lost the daily tooth; but, on the eighth, he paid
the money. With the treasure raised in such ways, the King made an
expedition into Ireland, where some English nobles had revolted. It was
one of the very few places from which he did not run away; because no
resistance was shown. He made another expedition into Wales--whence he
_did_ run away in the end: but not before he had got from the Welsh
people, as hostages, twenty-seven young men of the best families; every
one of whom he caused to be slain in the following year.

To Interdict and Excommunication, the Pope now added his last
sentence--Deposition. He proclaimed John no longer King, absolved all his
subjects from their allegiance, and sent Stephen Langton and others to the
King of France to tell him that, if he would invade England, he should be
forgiven all his sins--at least, should be forgiven them by the Pope, if
that would do.

As there was nothing that King Philip desired more than to invade England,
he collected a great army at Rouen, and a fleet of seventeen hundred ships
to bring them over. But the English people, however bitterly they hated
the King, were not a people to suffer invasion quietly.--They flocked to
Dover, where the English standard was, in such great numbers to enroll
themselves as defenders of their native land, that there were not
provisions for them, and the King could only select and retain sixty
thousand. But, at this crisis, the Pope, who had his own reasons for
objecting to either King John or King Philip being too powerful,
interfered. He intrusted a legate, whose name was Pandolf, with the easy
task of frightening King John. He sent him to the English camp, from
France, to terrify him with exaggerations of King Philip's power, and his
own weakness in the discontent of the English barons and people. Pandolf
discharged his commission so well, that King John, in a wretched panic,
consented to acknowledge Stephen Langton; to resign his kingdom "to God,
Saint Peter, and Saint Paul"--which meant