ester; but the Earl her brother, while he made what opposition he
could, with design to stop her pursuers, was himself taken prisoner,
with great slaughter of his men. After the battle, the Earl was in his
turn presented to Queen Maud, and by her command sent to Rochester to be
treated in the same manner with the King.

Thus the heads of both parties were each in the power of his enemy, and
Fortune seemed to have dealt with great equality between them. Two
factions divided the whole kingdom, and, as it usually happens, private
animosities were inflamed by the quarrel of the public; which introduced
a miserable face of things throughout the land, whereof the writers of
our English story give melancholy descriptions, not to be repeated in
this history; since the usual effects of civil war are obvious to
conceive, and tiresome as well as useless to relate. However, as the
quarrel between the King and Empress was grounded upon a cause that in
its own nature little concerned the interests of the people, this was
thought a convenient juncture for transacting a peace, to which there
appeared an universal disposition. Several expedients were proposed; but
Earl Robert would consent upon no other terms than the deposing of
Stephen, and immediate delivery of the crown to his sister. These
debates lasted for some months, until the two prisoners, weary of their
long constraint, by mutual consent were exchanged for each other, and
all thoughts of agreement laid aside.

The King, upon recovery of his freedom, hastened to London, to get
supplies of men and money for renewing the war. He there found that his
brother of Winchester had, in a council of bishops and abbots, renounced
all obedience to the Empress, and persuaded the assembly to follow his
example. The legate, in excuse for this proceeding, loaded her with
infamy, produced several instances wherein she had broken the oath she
took when he received her as Queen, and upon which his obedience was
grounded; said, he had received information that she had a design upon
his life.[37]

[Footnote 37: William of Malmesbury. [D.S.]]

It must be confessed that oaths of fealty in this Prince's reign were
feeble ties for binding the subject to any reasonable degree of
obedience; and the warmest advocates for liberty cannot but allow, from
those examples here produced, that it is very possible for people to run
upon great extremes in this matter, that a monarch may be too much
limited, a