o fortresses, ditches being dug in the church-yards
around, with little regard to the fact that the bones of the dead were
unearthed and scattered over the soil. The Norman bishops, completely
armed, and mounted on war-horses, took part in these operations, and
were no more scrupulous than the barons in torturing the English to
force from them their hoarded gold and silver.

Those were certainly not the days of merry England. Nor were they days
of pious England, when the heads of the church, armed with sword and
spear, led armies against their foes. In this they were justified by
the misrule of Stephen, who had shown his utter unfitness to rule. In
truth, a bishop ended that first phase of the war. The Bishop of Chester
rallied the troops which had fled from Ely. These grew by rapid
accretions until a new army was in the field. Stephen attacked it, but
the enemy held their own, and his troops were routed. They fled on all
sides, leaving the king alone in the midst of his foes. He lacked not
courage. Single-handed he defended himself against a throng of
assailants. But his men were in flight; he stood alone; it was death or
surrender; he yielded himself prisoner. He was taken to Gloucester, and
thence to Bristol Castle, in whose dungeons he was imprisoned. For the
time being the war was at an end. Maud was queen.

The daughter of Henry might have reigned during the remainder of her
life but for pride and folly, two faults fitted to wreck the best-built
cause. All was on her side except herself. Her own arrogance drove her
from the throne before it had grown warm from her sitting.

For the time, indeed, Stephen's cause seemed lost. He was in a dungeon
strongly guarded by his adversaries. His partisans went over in crowds
to the opposite side,--his own brother, Henry, Bishop of Winchester,
with them. The English peasants, embittered by oppression, rose against
the beaten army, and took partial revenge for their wrongs by plundering
and maltreating the defeated and dispersed soldiers in their flight.

Maud made her way to Winchester, her progress being one of royal
ostentation. Her entry to the town was like a Roman triumph. She was
received with all honor, was voted queen in a great convocation of
nobles, prelates, and knights, and seized the royal regalia and the
treasures of her vanquished foe. All would have gone well with her had
not good fortune turned her brain. Pride and a haughty spirit led to her
hasty downfall