. Seven knights alone, of
all the knights in England, remained with the King; who, reduced to this
strait, at last sent the Earl of Pembroke to the Barons to say that he
approved of every thing, and would meet them to sign their charter when
they would. "Then," said the Barons, "let the day be the 15th of June, and
the place, Runny-Mead."

On Monday, the fifteenth of June, one thousand two hundred and fourteen,
the King came from Windsor Castle, and the Barons came from the town of
Staines, and they met on Runny-Mead, which is still a pleasant meadow by
the Thames, where rushes grow in the clear waters of the winding river,
and its banks are green with grass and trees. On the side of the Barons,
came the General of their army, ROBERT FITZ-WALTER, and a great concourse
of the nobility of England. With the King, came, in all, some
four-and-twenty persons of any note, most of whom despised him and were
merely his advisers in form. On that great day, and in that great company,
the King signed MAGNA CHARTA--the great charter of England--by which he
pledged himself to maintain the church in its rights; to relieve the
Barons of oppressive obligations as vassals of the Crown--of which the
Barons, in their turn, pledged themselves to relieve _their_ vassals, the
people; to respect the liberties of London and all other cities and
boroughs; to protect foreign merchants who came to England; to imprison no
man without a fair trial; and to sell, delay, or deny justice to none. As
the Barons knew his falsehood well, they further required, as their
securities, that he should send out of his kingdom all his foreign troops;
that for two months they should hold possession of the city of London, and
Stephen Langton of the Tower; and that five-and-twenty of their body,
chosen by themselves, should be a lawful committee to watch the keeping of
the charter, and to make war upon him if he broke it.

All this he was obliged to yield. He signed the charter with a smile, and,
if he could have looked agreeable, would have done so, as he departed from
the splendid assembly. When he got home to Windsor Castle, he was quite a
madman in his helpless fury. And he broke the charter immediately
afterward.

He sent abroad for foreign soldiers, and sent to the Pope for help, and
plotted to take London by surprise, while the Barons should be holding a
great tournament at Stamford, which they had agreed to hold there as a
celebration of the charter. The Ba