was consumed by fire the whole monastery of Peterborough,
and all the buildings, except the chapter-house and the
dormitory, and therewith also all the greater part of the town.
All this happened on a Friday, which was the second day before
the nones of August.

A.D. 1117. All this year remained the King Henry, in Normandy,
on account of the hostility of the King of France and his other
neighbours. And in the summer came the King of France and the
Earl of Flanders with him with an army into Normandy. And having
stayed therein one night, they returned again in the morning
without fighting. But Normandy was very much afflicted both by
the exactions and by the armies which the King Henry collected
against them. This nation also was severely oppressed through
the same means, namely, through manifold exactions. This year
also, in the night of the calends of December, were immoderate
storms with thunder, and lightning, and rain, and hail. And in
the night of the third day before the ides of December was the
moon, during a long time of the night, as if covered with blood,
and afterwards eclipsed. Also in the night of the seventeenth
day before the calends of January, was the heaven seen very red,
as if it were burning. And on the octave of St. John the
Evangelist was the great earthquake in Lombardy; from the shock
of which many minsters, and towers, and houses fell, and did much
harm to men. This was a very blighted year in corn, through the
rains that scarcely ceased for nearly all the year. And the
Abbot Gilbert of Westminster died on the eighth day before the
ides of December; and Faritz, Abbot of Abingdon, on the seventh
day before the calends of March. And in this same year....

A.D. 1118. All this year abode the King Henry in Normandy on
account of the war of the King of France and the Earl of Anjou,
and the Earl of Flanders. And the Earl of Flanders was wounded
in Normandy, and went so wounded into Flanders. By this war was
the king much exhausted, and he was a great loser both in land
and money. And his own men grieved him most, who often from him
turned, and betrayed him; and going over to his foes surrendered
to them their castles, to the injury and disappointment of the
king. All this England dearly bought through the manifold guilds
that all this year abated not. This year, in the week of the
Epiphany, there was one evening a great deal of lightning, and
thereafter unusual thunder. And the Q