ll,
of a fish called Lamprey, against which he had often been cautioned by
his physicians. His remains were brought over to Reading Abbey to be
buried.

You may perhaps hear the cunning and promise-breaking of King Henry the
First, called 'policy' by some people, and 'diplomacy' by others. Neither
of these fine words will in the least mean that it was true; and nothing
that is not true can possibly be good.

His greatest merit, that I know of, was his love of learning--I should
have given him greater credit even for that, if it had been strong enough
to induce him to spare the eyes of a certain poet he once took prisoner,
who was a knight besides. But he ordered the poet's eyes to be torn from
his head, because he had laughed at him in his verses; and the poet, in
the pain of that torture, dashed out his own brains against his prison
wall. King Henry the First was avaricious, revengeful, and so false,
that I suppose a man never lived whose word was less to be relied upon.

CHAPTER XI--ENGLAND UNDER MATILDA AND STEPHEN

The King was no sooner dead than all the plans and schemes he had
laboured at so long, and lied so much for, crumbled away like a hollow
heap of sand. STEPHEN, whom he had never mistrusted or suspected,
started up to claim the throne.

Stephen was the son of ADELA, the Conqueror's daughter, married to the
Count of Blois. To Stephen, and to his brother HENRY, the late King had
been liberal; making Henry Bishop of Winchester, and finding a good
marriage for Stephen, and much enriching him. This did not prevent
Stephen from hastily producing a false witness, a servant of the late
King, to swear that the King had named him for his heir upon his death-
bed. On this evidence the Archbishop of Canterbury crowned him. The new
King, so suddenly made, lost not a moment in seizing the Royal treasure,
and hiring foreign soldiers with some of it to protect his throne.

If the dead King had even done as the false witness said, he would have
had small right to will away the English people, like so many sheep or
oxen, without their consent. But he had, in fact, bequeathed all his
territory to Matilda; who, supported by ROBERT, Earl of Gloucester, soon
began to dispute the crown. Some of the powerful barons and priests took
her side; some took Stephen's; all fortified their castles; and again the
miserable English people were involved in war, from which they could
never derive advantage whosoever