bury likened him to Julius Caesar who according to Livy commenced the conquest of the Roman world with only five cohorts. Leaving the Empress at Arundel, he now rode with scarce a dozen of these knights across the hostile country to Bristol, a city and district which had long been in his interest. In the meantime Stephen, who was battering the walls of Marlborough when the alarming intelligence reached his ears, advanced towards Arundel; and, impelled by the gallantry which was part of his disposition, actually granted a safe-conduct to the Empress who was come to dispossess him of the crown, to enable her to pass in safety across Hampshire and Wiltshire and rejoin her brother. This trust was committed to the Bishop of Winchester and Waleran Earl of Mellent who adopted a route through Calne and may therefore reasonably be supposed to have also tarried at Devizes which was then held for the King. We know nothing of the chieftain placed in authority here by Stephen after the ejectment of the legitimate owner, beyond a statement made at the aforesaid Synod by the Legate, that the Bishop's castles were entrusted to "laymen of no religious character," but during the autumn of this year events thickened so rapidly and assumed so sanguinary a character that the castle naturally became an object of desire to all the various belligerents, and was not long in changing hands. The Empress's party was strongest in 1 From this passage Mr. Giles infers that William of Malmesbury must have seen Livy in a more complete state than it exists at present. Giles's Translation of Malms. 505. Doubtless here was one of the many MSS. which were scattered to the winds when the Stump family came into possession of the Abbey at the time of the Reformation, whose loss Aubrey so feelingly bewails, when he tells us that in his own school days "they flew about like butter flies" and were cut up to cover his copy-books;-when he relates how they were used by the sons of the Cavalier Colonel Stump to scour their firelocks: -and how, still worse! the rector of Yatton-Keynel stopped therewith the bung-holes of his strong beer barrels, exultingly exclaiming as he delivered the final blow, that there was nothing served his purpose so well as an old sheet of parchment. Natural History of Wilts, p. 78, Britton's Edition. Malmesbury was one of the Gloucestershire and Wiltshire. first posts seized in her name. perty of Humphrey de Bohun late Steward in the household of King Henry, declared on the same side; [See Canon Jackson's History of Monkton Furley;] Wallingford was held by Brian the Earl of Gloster's son; and when we add to these the castle of Marlborough, it is evident that Devizes stood alone in Stephen's interest. THE SIEGE OF TROWBRIDGE. The siege of Trowbridge was at this moment engaging his principal attention. Here Humphrey de Bohun, with the assistance of Milo of Gloucester, had put all the engineering skill of the day into requisition to keep out the foe and to preserve his patrimonial estate. No less vigorously on the other side was the blockade maintained, and military machines were made to lend their cumbrous aid. But Stephen's knights soon wearied of the profitless toil. Some shewed signs of treachery: others professed to believe that the Earl of Gloster would soon be upon them and break up the leaguer. It was evidently time for the King to withdraw his forces from so contagious a district and concentrate them in the neighbourhood of London. The siege of Trowbridge was therefore raised; Stephen taking care before leaving the West to station in the castle of Devizes a chosen body of practised menat-arms with orders to infest and harass the garrison of Trowbridge to the utmost of their power. So faithfully did these men execute their trust that by the retaliation they thus provoked, forays, plunderings, and mutual slaughter speedily reduced the entire circumjacent territory to the condition of a miserable solitude. THE DEATH OF BISHOP ROGER. Stephen mended his fortune at this juncture by the successful surprizal of the castles of Cerne and Malmesbury, capturing in the latter a formidable ruffian named Robert Fitz-Hubert who had recently seized the town and castle in the name of the Empress. He will speedily engage our more particular attention; but before entering on the narrative of his career, we are summoned to the death-bed of the broken hearted Bishop of Salisbury who expired in December 1139, having survived just long enough to see his name degraded, his property spoiled by barbarians and his country in flames. In order to save from the royal rapacity what remained of his moveable treasures, he gave them to his beloved church of Sarum, depositing them within the sanctuary of the high altar. Even these were carried off by Stephen's orders just before the Bishop breathed his latest sigh. Like Cardinal Wolsey he was now "left naked to his enemies;" his ill fortunes, says one of his biographers, seeming to culminate in the fact that though so manifestly wretched, there were few who pitied him, so much envy and hatred had his magnificence engendered, and that too in the breasts of many whom he had undeservedly advanced to honour. Even the author of the Gesta Stephani, himself an ecclesiastic and the energetic denouncer of church-spoliation, though his patron King Stephen were the aggressor, cannot forbear citing the Psalmist's rebuke on him who "heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them" forgetful of the warning voice to the rich man in the Gospel "This night thy soul shall be required of thee." Sewell's edition page 62. Vast indeed must have been the Bishop's wealth when, on the testimony of the same writer, this last deposit comprised an infinite quantity of coin, besides gold and silver vessels in abundance, the ductile fabrics of artistic grace emblazoned by elaborate chasings. It is but fair to add that the Canons favoured the appropriation of the treasure by Stephen, who religiously applied great part of it to the relief of impoverished ecclesiastics and to the restoration of the churches of Amesbury and Malmesbury. But no consenting party to the spoliation of his house was the exasperated Bishop of Ely; who, ejected from Devizes, and now burning anew with revenge, repaired to his Cathedral-island in the Fen country and defied the whole power of Stephen. But Stephen was again more than his match. A faithless monk, who for his services afterwards became Abbot of Romsey, revealed a ford by which the King's forces penetrated into Ely, ravaged the place and drove the Bishop to Gloucester. THE ADVENTURES OF ROBERT FITZ-HUBERT. This robber chieftain, born in Flanders, engaged as a stipendiary in the service of the Earl of Gloucester, found on his arrival in England the state of the country exactly suited to his marauding tastes. His first act was to possess himself of the castle and town of Malmesbury, where his presence was regarded by the monks with great consternation. From this post of vantage he was, as already related, speedily driven out again by King Stephen in the autumn of 1139, and in the ensuing spring he laid his plans for the capture of the far more important citadel of Devizes. His intentions were carefully concealed from his superior in command; and before setting forth on the perilous adventure which was to make him master as he boasted of Wilts and Hants, he made a league with the desperate men who acknowledged his leadership, that if success should crown their enterprise, neither he on the one hand nor they on the other should ever surrender the place, though hanging should be the penalty of their rebellion. During the Passion week, on the 7th before the Kalends of April 1140, Fitz-Hubert and his dark bands stood beneath the outer walls in the dead of night. These exterior defences they soon surmounted by means of scaling ladders made with thongs of leather, and then with a loud shout of victory established their footing in the outworks [the "exteriora castella"] suprising in their sleep a principal part of the unsuspecting garrison, and compelling the few who had time to escape to betake themselves to the keep. The possession of even the subordinate parts of the fortress established the success of the undertaking; and the ruthless captain, though he ceased not to assail the central tower, forthwith commenced the more congenial occupation of pillaging the neighbourhood; "night and day, in the pride of his heart," says the historian, "devastating all around him" ["singulis diebus et noctibus in extollentiâ cordis ubiubi omnia devastat"]. For four days did the inmates of the donjon keep the place against him, till the failure of their provisions and the utter hopelessness of receiving succour from the King compelled their sur render. But no long time elapsed before a numerous military array were seen to enter by the north-west avenue of the distracted Borough and to draw up before the castle gates. This was a detachment from the Earl of Gloster's forces, headed by his son Brian who in the name of his mistress the Empress Matilda was come to claim the fortress for his father. As disguise on the part of Fitz-Hubert was by this time at an end the new Governor of Devizes made answer to the Embassy, that having won the castle himself, for himself he designed to keep it: and having with many such like derisive threats dismissed the young man irritated and outraged back to his father's camp, he felt that time was come when he must invite to his aid a body of his compatriots. Such at least was his expressed intention. Among his troop of banditti were two of his own nephews. The character and acts of Robert Fitz-Hubert, as delineated by William of Malmesbury and other writers are scandalous even for that scandalous age; cruelty, blasphemy, and treachery being all laid to his charge. It was a favourite boast with him that he had on one occasion on the Continent witnessed the burning of a church in which twenty-four monks were confined. It was his full intention, he would then add, to do the like in England; the monks of Malmesbury in particular should not escape his vengeance, in consequence, as he chose |