nd
the hour in which he was born; wishing that he had received death by
violence of sword or knife instead of natural nourishment. He whetted
his teeth, and did bite now on one staff, now on another, as he walked,
and oft brake the same in pieces when he had done, and with such
disordered behaviour and furious gestures he uttered his grief, that
the noblemen very well perceived the inclination of his inward affection
concerning these things before the breaking-up of the council, and
therefore sore lamented the state of the realm, guessing what would
follow of his impatience, and displeasant taking of the matter."
The faithless king made an attempt to regain his lost power, and war
breaking out afresh in the following year, a numerous army, under the
command of William de Nivernois, besieged the castle, which was stoutly
defended by Inglehard de Achie and sixty knights. The barons, however,
learning that John was marching through Norfolk and Suffolk, and
ravaging the country, hastily raised the siege and advanced to meet him.
But he avoided them, marched to Stamford and Lincoln, and from thence
towards Wales. On his return from this expedition he was seized with the
distemper of which he died.

Henry the Third was an ardent encourager of architecture, and his reign
marks the second great epoch in the annals of the castle. In 1223 eight
hundred marks were paid to Engelhard de Cygony, constable of the castle,
John le Draper, and William the clerk of Windsor, masters of the works,
and others, for repairs and works within the castle; the latter, it is
conjectured, referring to the erection of a new great hall within the
lower ward, there being already a hall of small dimensions in the upper
court. The windows of the new building were filled with painted glass,
and at the upper end, upon a raised dais, was a gilt throne sustaining
a statue of the king in his robes. Within this vast and richly decorated
chamber, in 1240, on the day of the Nativity, an infinite number of poor
persons were collected and fed by the king's command.

During the greater part of Henry's long and eventful reign the works
within the castle proceeded with unabated activity. Carpenters were
maintained on the royal establishment; the ditch between the hall and
the lower ward was repaired; a new kitchen was built; the bridges were
repaired with timber procured from the neighbouring forests; certain
breaches in the wall facing the garden were stopped; the