e populace, acquainted with the
danger of their favorite, burst open the gates and introduced him into
the city.

The power of the two parties was now more equally balanced, and their
mutual apprehensions inclined them to listen to the pacific
exhortations of the bishops. It was agreed to refer every subject of
dispute to the arbitration of the King of France; an expedient which
had been proposed the last year by Henry, but rejected by Leicester.
Louis accepted the honorable office, and summoned the parties to
appear before him at Amiens. The King attended in person; the earl,
who was detained at home in consequence of a real or pretended fall
from his horse, had sent his attorneys. Both parties solemnly swore to
abide by the decision of the French monarch. Louis heard the
allegations and arguments of each, consulted his court, and pronounced
judgment in favor of Henry. He annulled the Provisions of Oxford as
destructive of the rights of the crown and injurious to the interests
of the nation; ordered the royal castles to be restored; gave to the
King the authority to appoint all the officers of the state and of his
household, and to call to his council whomsoever he thought proper,
whether native or foreigner; reinstated him in the same condition in
which he was before the meeting of the "Mad Parliament," and ordered
that all offences committed by either party should be buried in
oblivion. This award was soon afterward confirmed by Pope Urban; and
the Archbishop of Canterbury received an order to excommunicate all
who, in violation of their oaths, should refuse to submit to it.

The barons had already taken their resolution. The moment the decision
was announced to them they declared that it was, on the face of it,
contrary to truth and justice, and had been procured by the undue
influence which the Queen of Louis, the sister-in-law to Henry,
possessed over the mind of her husband. Hostilities immediately
recommenced; and as every man of property was compelled to adhere to
one of the two parties, the flames of civil war were lighted up in
almost every part of the kingdom. In the North, and in Cornwall and
Devon, the decided superiority of the royalists forced the friends of
the barons to dissemble their real sentiments; the midland counties
and the marches of Wales were pretty equally divided: but in the
Cinque Ports, the metropolis, and the neighboring districts Montfort
ruled without opposition. His partisan, Thomas