ully to individuals; he wrote letters, in the king's
name, to all the malcontent barons; in which he represented to them
that, whatever jealousy and animosity they might have entertained
against the late king, a young prince, the lineal heir of their ancient
monarchs, had now succeeded to the throne, without succeeding either
to the resentments or principles of his predecessor; that the desperate
expedient, which they had employed, of calling in a foreign potentate,
had, happily for them as well as for the nation, failed of entire
success, and it was still in their power, by a speedy return to their
duty, to restore the independence of the kingdom, and to secure that
liberty for which they so zealously contended; that as all past offences
of the barons were now buried in oblivion, they ought, on their part,
to forget their complaints against their late sovereign, who, if he had
been anywise blamable in his conduct had left to his son the salutary
warning, to avoid the paths which had led to such fatal extremities:
and that having now obtained a charter for their liberties, it was
their interest to show, by their conduct, that this acquisition was
not incompatible with their allegiance, and that the rights of king and
people, so far from being hostile and opposite, might mutually support
and sustain each other.[*]

These considerations, enforced by the character of honor and constancy
which Pembroke had ever maintained, had a mighty influence on the
barons; and most of them began secretly to negotiate with him, and
many of them openly returned to their duty. The diffidence which Lewis
discovered of their fidelity, forwarded this general propension towards
the king; and when the French prince refused the government of the
castle of Hertford to Robert Fitz-Walter, who had been so active against
the late king, and who claimed that fortress as his property, they
plainly saw that the English were excluded from every trust, and that
foreigners had engrossed all the confidence and affection of their new
sovereign.[**] The excommunication, too, denounced by the legate
against all the adherents of Lewis, failed not, in the turn which men's
dispositions had taken, to produce a mighty effect upon them; and they
were easily persuaded to consider a cause as impious, for which they had
already entertained an unsurmountable aversion.[***] Though Lewis made
a journey to France, and brought over succors from that kingdom [****]
he found,