r, were so indignant at the
violation of the Sanctuary of the Church, that the frightened King soon
ordered the Black Band to take him back again; at the same time
commanding the Sheriff of Essex to prevent his escaping out of Brentwood
Church. Well! the Sheriff dug a deep trench all round the church, and
erected a high fence, and watched the church night and day; the Black
Band and their Captain watched it too, like three hundred and one black
wolves. For thirty-nine days, Hubert de Burgh remained within. At
length, upon the fortieth day, cold and hunger were too much for him, and
he gave himself up to the Black Band, who carried him off, for the second
time, to the Tower. When his trial came on, he refused to plead; but at
last it was arranged that he should give up all the royal lands which had
been bestowed upon him, and should be kept at the Castle of Devizes, in
what was called 'free prison,' in charge of four knights appointed by
four lords. There, he remained almost a year, until, learning that a
follower of his old enemy the Bishop was made Keeper of the Castle, and
fearing that he might be killed by treachery, he climbed the ramparts one
dark night, dropped from the top of the high Castle wall into the moat,
and coming safely to the ground, took refuge in another church. From
this place he was delivered by a party of horse despatched to his help by
some nobles, who were by this time in revolt against the King, and
assembled in Wales. He was finally pardoned and restored to his estates,
but he lived privately, and never more aspired to a high post in the
realm, or to a high place in the King's favour. And thus end--more
happily than the stories of many favourites of Kings--the adventures of
Earl Hubert de Burgh.

The nobles, who had risen in revolt, were stirred up to rebellion by the
overbearing conduct of the Bishop of Winchester, who, finding that the
King secretly hated the Great Charter which had been forced from his
father, did his utmost to confirm him in that dislike, and in the
preference he showed to foreigners over the English. Of this, and of his
even publicly declaring that the Barons of England were inferior to those
of France, the English Lords complained with such bitterness, that the
King, finding them well supported by the clergy, became frightened for
his throne, and sent away the Bishop and all his foreign associates. On
his marriage, however, with ELEANOR, a French lady, the daught