ard the Black Prince, was brought captive to Windsor; and on the
festival of Saint George in the following year; 1358, Edward outshone
all his former splendid doings by a tournament which he gave in honour
of his royal prisoner. Proclamation having been made as before, and
letters of safe conduct issued, the nobles and knighthood of Almayne,
Gascoigne, Scotland, and other countries, flocked to attend it, The
Queen of Scotland, Edward's sister, was present at the jousts; and it is
said that John, commenting upon the splendour of the spectacle, shrewdly
observed "that he never saw or knew such royal shows and feastings
without some after-reckoning." The same monarch replied to his
kingly captor, who sought to rouse him from dejection, on another
occasion--"Quomodo cantabimus canticum in terra aliena!"

That his works might not be retarded for want of hands, Edward in the
twenty-fourth year of his reign appointed John de Sponlee master of the
stonehewers, with a power not only "to take and keep, as well within
the liberties as without, as many masons and other artificers as were
necessary, and to convey them to Windsor, but to arrest and imprison
such as should disobey or refuse; with a command to all sheriffs,
mayors, bailiffs, etc., to assist him." These powers were fully acted
upon at a later period, when some of the workmen, having left their
employment, were thrown into Newgate; while the place of others, who had
been carried off by a pestilence then raging in the castle, was supplied
by impressment.

In 1356 WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM was constituted superintendent of the works,
with the same powers as John de Sponlee, and his appointment marks
an important era in the annals of the castle. Originally secretary to
Edward the Third, this remarkable man became Bishop of Winchester and
prelate of the Garter. When he solicited the bishopric, it is said
that Edward told him he was neither a priest nor a scholar; to which he
replied that he would soon be the one, and in regard to the other, he
would make more scholars than all the bishops of England ever did. He
made good his word by founding the collegiate school at Winchester, and
erecting New College at Oxford. When the Winchester Tower was finished,
he caused the words, HOC FECIT WYKEHAM, to be carved upon it; and the
king, offended at his presumption, Wykeham turned away his displeasure
by declaring that the inscription meant that the castle had made him,
and not that he had