III the I\,Furder of HENRY CLEMENT and the PIRATES OF

Home , Long John Silver, Lundy, Sea Dogs

III

THE I\,fURDER OF HENRY CLEMENT AND THE PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND.

t. The Murder of Henry Clement All that rveknow of Henry Clementis that he was a clerk and messengerof the justiciar of Ireland, Maurice fitzGerald, and that he was murdered in the spring of re35 in lVestminster. The crime causeda sensation.Better men of his time have left no memorial; Henry Clement has a certain fame becauseof the manner of his death. A royal letter of r6 May rz35 tells the story. King Henry had arrived in Westminsteron the previousSundav, r3 \{ay. On the samenight Henry Clement wasfoully murdered in his lodging "before our gates, to our no small dishonour and the scandalof the realm". Severalpersons were suspectedof the murder. Geoffrey de h{arisco, a former justiciar of Ireland, fled to sanctuary in Clerkenwell. One important person, Nfaurice Comyn, was at once caught and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He lay in the Tower from Pentecost(27 May) till the feastof All Saints(r November),when he was releasedafter finding pledges for his appearance.He was delivered to Geoffrey de 1V{arisco,in whosecompany he had apparently come to Westminster.The other personsaccused of the murder scatteredand fled. Somemade their way to the west.The king had heard that their intention was to crossto Lundy Island. They were William de Marisco (or N[arsh),

lBaseC upon a paper which first appeared in History, xxv (r94r), eB5-3ro. A revised edition, to which reference should be made for information about authorities, rvill be found in my work, HmrT III and Thc lard Edward,ii.74o-759. 38 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND Geoffrey'sson, with hishousehold, William of Pont de I'Arche, Philip of Dinant, Thomas de Erdinton and John Cabus. Three others,Walter Sandcinell,Eustace Comyn and Henry of Colombieres,were believedto have gone east,for the earl Warenne and the sheriffof Norfolk and Suffolk were warned and told to intercept them. Every other sherifflvaswarned to be on the watch for the malefactors;but, with the exceptionof William Nfarsh, they disappearfrom history. They did not come to stand their trial, and, accordingly, they were outlawed. The official record of the judicial inquiry which followed the murder has fortunately surv'ived. It rvas noticed by Maitland nearly half a century ago and edited by him in the English Historical Reuiew', It gives the evidence of many rvitnessesand enablesus to reconstructthe detailsof the crime. Henry Clement wasstaying in a houseopposite the main gate of the royal palace-that is to say,in a streetor open place to the eastof the abbey church and precincts.The cemeterylay to the left, the way to the town to the right, of the palacegates. The house in which Henry Clement lodged belonged to \faster David the surgeon.Since a woman in the house,one of the rvitnesses,is describedas the hospitaof Master David, I imagine that David leasedit from her, leaving her the useof part of it-there are examplesof such leases--or that she leasedit from him, giving him the right to occupy the main rooms in residence.It L when he was was of the usual type-a I hall, from which an inside stair led to an upper room = solarium),an adjacent lodging in which Alice the hospita ) iir-cd,and a courtyard (curia),at the back in which there was a smaller house with a stable, probably a stable with a iirvelling-roomover it. Somemen weresleeping in this stable. Oppositethe house,on the other sideof the paved streetsome

tEng. Hist. i?ea.x (r895) zg4; F. W. Maitland, CollcctedPapcrs,m. tr-16. 39 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND of the king's servantswere in tentsset up beforethe gate of the palace.On the night of Sunday, r3 h{ay re35, Master David and his guestwere sleepingin the solar. Barly on the Monday morning-the evidence suggeststhat it was not long after midnight-a number ofmenrode up to the house.The men in tents heard the neighing of the horsesand the clatter of their hoovesin the roadway. One of thesemen said that he thought there were about sixteen horsemen,some of them armed. Half a dozenwent to the house,leaving the rest to watch out_ side.They broke dorvn the door of the hall, climbed the stair and broke down the door of the solar. One of them carried a blazing torch, w-hichwas extinguishedwhen they saw that they had found their quarry. I{aster David was wounded. Henry' Clement tried to escapeby jumping out of a rvindow, but, seeingthe men outside,he drew back. He waskilled. A king's messengerwho was sleeping in the hall saw what happened,but wastoo frightenedto do anything. His servant who was also in the hall, said that the houseseemed full of men. He was so frightened that he coveredup his head. He ventured out afterwardsand followed the murdererstowards the cemetery, where, so another witnesssaid, they had left their horses.Not one of the numerouswitnesses could identify any of the strangers,and Alice the hospitawho cried out from a windorv could not awaken the men in the stable.The case againstWilliam de Nfariscoand his companionsseems to have dependedon what is called circumstantialevidence. The surgeonsaid, for example,that a boy in buttons1, a messenger of William de N{arisco,had called dailv to ask where Henrv Clement rvasand where he would lodge. Master David also reported a threatening demonstrationagainst Henry, on the

LQtidam pamus nuntius Willelmi de Marisco (nrs. reads in error Withtmi Ltar- ,,Can escalli) cum minutis butonibus. lvfairland asks, this bc an early appearance ofthe boy in buttons?" 40 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND bridge at Rochester,by Henry Pont de l'Arche and others. Two knights from Ireland said that, when the king was at Windsor [Io-16 April], William de lMariscohad accused Henry Clement of putting obstaclesin the way of his affairsat court and using his influenceto avert the royal favour. Brian, another messengerfrorn the justiciar of Ireland, who had been sleepingin the housein the courtyard, said that someof William's men had threatened Henry for the same reason. Alice testified that on that very Sunday in Westminster, Henry Clementhad said,in her hearing, that he fearedfor his life and wishedhe werein Ireland rather than in England. Who were thesepeople, and rvhy did they kill Henry Clement? z. Geffie2 de trfariscoand Ricltardthe l[arshal Mattherv Paris, the St. Albans chronicler, gives us one reason: A certa.inclerk, Henry Clement,a messengerof the ruling men in lreland, foolishlvboasting that he had beenthe cause of the death of Earl Richard the N{arshal,and calling him a traitor and a cruel enemy of the king and kingdom, was killed in Lorrdon, rvhile the king was there. Gilbert l\farshal, taxed by the king himself and by others rvith the crime, cleared himself after a long process(plurinis argumentis). I am not sure whether the vague words mean that Earl Gilbert-the brother and successorof Earl Richard the Marshal-was formally indicted before his peers, but that his name and reputation were involved is shown by a solemn promise which he made to the king three weeks after Easter in the following year (1236). He made oath on the gospelsto observe his promise, in the presence of the king, the archbishop of Canterbury and the chief men of the kingdom, and he attached his seal to the writing rvhich recorded it. His undertaking comprised many points, and the first was that hc 41 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND would not receivenor allow to be receivedin any of his lands William de Marisco and the other men, whose names we alreadyknow, outlawed for the death of Henry Clement.The assassinshad obviously been connected with him in some way, and he had beensuspected of harbouring them. Henry Clement, then, was murdered by men in the Marshal'scircle. According to Matthew Paris,he had gloried in Earl Richard's death,and boastedthat he had had a hand in getting rid of a man who wasa traitor. The deedwas an aftermath ofa great political crisisand of a tragic event which had stirred passionand bred a crop of rumours. Its origin, like that of so many crimesof the kind, is to be found in Ireland; not, however,among the native Irish, but in the circle of a great Anglo-Norman lord, Richard Marshal, earl of Pembroke,and lord of Leinster.Earl Richard was the secondson of the famousWilliam the Marshal who at one time had governedEngland as rectorregni (tzfi-rg). He had bcen forced into a war againsthis lord,KingHenry. He had carried the war from the l\{archesof Walesinto lreland, where he had gonein February r 234.He had doubtlessheard that, in his absence,his interestsin Leinster were threatened by the justiciar and barons and servantsof the crown. King Henry, of course,was perfectlyjustified in striking a blow at the Marshal in Ireland, while the Marshal, with the aid of Llywelyn of Wales, was successfullydefying him in the Marches; but, in fact, the circumstancesof the Marshal's return to Ireland were not quite so simple as this. At the very time when Earl Richard was trying to recoversome of his lost castlesin Leinster, the king in England was negotiating for peacewith him and Llywelyn. Henry had found that he could not win, and he had been persuadedby the English bishops to accept terms which w'ould give the Marshal just what he had been fighting for-the dismissalof his present advisers, 42 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND and the renelval of co-operationwith his baronson the basis of the Great Charter. The object of the negotiations was peace,not to separatethe earl from his allies in Wales, and then to continue the war against him. Hence, one would expect to hear that the justiciar and barons in Ireland had made a truce with him. They did offer to negotiatefor a truce, so that they could await instructionsfrom England, but when the parties met on the well-known plain in Kildare county, known as the Curragh, they refusedto restore,as a prelimin- ary to a ftuce, the castleswhich they still held. Moreover, they proceeded to attack the N{arshal in superior force (r April r2g+).ThelVlarshalwasbadlywounded in the fight, was captured, and died on r6 April. By this time his causein England was already won. It is a mysteriousstory. If the justiciar, as may well have beenthe case,was ignorant that negotiationswere proceeding on the borders of Wales, we cannot blame him for refusing to surrenderthe castlesas a condition of a truce. News some- timestook tw-oor threeweeks to passfrom England to Ireland, or freland to England. King Henry, for example,did not hear of the Marshal's death until the beginning of May. Yet, one feels,the movementsof eventsin the two countries,in a matter of such importance, might have been kept in better stepwith eachother. In any case,the Marshal thought that he had been trapped, and very ugly rumours were spread after his death that thejusticiar and baronsin Ireland had beeninstructed to pursue the earl to the death. The Curragh was a field, not of negotiationswhich broke down, but of black treachery. We need not argue whether the scandal was justified or not, though it was certainly falsein someof its careful detail; the important point is that it was believed.Any man who, like Henry Clement,gloried in his own shareof responsibility,was askingfor trouble. 43 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND The new earl, Gilbert the Nfarshal,kept his thoughts to himself.It washis businessto get his inheritanceand to join in the generalreconciliation which the archbishopof Canterbury and his colleaguesbrought about in England. As we have seen,he could not avoid suspicionafter Henry Clement was killed, but he had far too much at staketo allow himself to be mixed up in affairs of this kind. He was a very great man in baronial societyand he had his orvn life to live. Others were not so happily placed.And here we come back to William de Marisco and his father Geoffrey. William de N{ariscowas a prominent member of a very important Anglo-Norman family. His father, Geoffrey, had been active in the serviceof KingJohn and King Henry and had three times been justiciar of Ireland. Geoffrey, whose appearancein Ireland rvas probably due to his uncle, the r, archbishop of Dublin, John Comyn was a native of north Somerset,where his nephewJordan lived'. Geoffrey'ssuccess was due, not to birth, but to his own energeticability to seize the opportunities which a career in Ireland gave. When he came to Ireland, the drive westwards, in Munster and southern Connaught, was beginning, and it continued after he becamejusticiar in rzr5. In addition to landsin Leinster,

lThis relationship explains rhe fact that Geoffrey de Marisco had a Nlaurice Comyn and a Eust"ce Comyn in his company. \{'hen trIaurice rvas releasedon bail lrom the Torrer, he rvashanCed over to Geoffre.v.The relationship of these Irish Coml-ns to the English and Scottish Comyns is unknorvn. Just as Arch- bishop John of Dublin brought Coml'ns to Ireland, so \4'illiam Coml'n, chan- cellor of King David. brouqht them to Scotllnd, rvirere they became lords of Badenoch (seeJ. H. Rouncl, "The Origin of the Comyns," in The Ancestnr,x. Io4-r9, July I9o4). The only indication that Geoffrey de N{arisco may have been connected t'ith the Scottish famil,v is llatthew Peris'sstatement that at one time he was protected by the great Walter Com_vn.

eThe problem of Geoffrey's origins and numerous connections has been cleared up by Eric St. John Broola in his papers on the famiiy of Marisco, pubiished in Tfu Journal of the Ro2al Societ2of Antiquaricsof Irclandfor tg3r and r 932. 4 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND he had casties and tenements in Limerick county, in Thomond (co. Clare) and along the upper shoreof Dingle Bay in Desmond (co. Kerry), where he fought and bargained and settled, now in partnership, now in rivalry, with the house of fitzGerald. He was connected with many of the familieswhich then and later roseto localgreatness in south- western lreland. Through his secondwife, Eva de Berming- ham, he got a leading positionin Ossory,in northern Leinster, not far from Dublin. As justiciar, he r.l'asat one time accused of using his authority to feather his own nest, and to divert revenueswhich ought to have gone to the ro1'alexchequer. He built castlesand founded ab6e,vs.He had a large family of sons and daughters, one or two of whom, notably his son Robert, escaped the misfortuneswhich beset the rest and became firmly rooted in Ireland. His son, William, with whom we are mainly concerned,seemed destined to an equally prosperouscareer. ln tzz4 William rvastaken into the king's service,as a member of the household.He married Matilda, the nieceof the archbishopof Dublin, Henry, rvhoin his way was almost as great a man as Archbishop John Comyn had been before him; and who gave a handsome marriage portion to his niece. The muiderers of Henry Clement are obscureenough to us, but they were probably well known in Ireland, as knights or men at arms, who held landsof the ex-justiciarand hisson, and who had fought with them in the army of the Marshal. For somereason, Geoffrey and William had cometo Westninsterin the springof t235, on businessat the royal court, and thesemen werewith them. A fatal impulse led William to the act .,r'hichruined his life: he slew a man who was on a missionfi'om thc justiciar of Ireland and under royal protectior-r,and he slew him in a place,within the vergeof the palace,lhere the king'speace wasesoeciallv sacred. 4ir PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND William's lossof self-controlwas, I am sure,due to feelings more personal than anger against a scurrilouscivil seryant, and devotion to the memory of Earl Richard the Marshal. Henry Clement-who, we must remember, would not be an insignificant person, and for all we know may have been an influential man, with a fine future beforehim-was, I fancy, an old and hateful acquaintance,and the last man whom William de Marisco wished to seein England. And I think that the quarrel which led to his death must have been connected in some way with the fact that Geoffrey de Marisco and his family had been singled out for peculiar obloquy in the storieswhich were circulating about the death of Earl Richard and the treachery at the Curragh. For Geoffrey de Marisco is the scoundrelof the piece, as it is told in the pages of Roger of Wendover. According to the chronicler, he had joined the Marshal with the deliberate intention of leading him on with treacherousadvice until he was in the net cast for him by thejusticiar, Maurice fitzGerald. All the available evidence goes to show that this was untrue, for nobody sufferedmore promptly by the Marshal's defeatthan Geoffrey and his relatives; but supposethat there had been traffic betweenthe ex-jirsticiarand the leadersof the king's government and army in Ireland-not necessarilytreacherous, but sufficiently close to arouse suspicion in the light of later events?Geoffrey would naturally take a leading part in the negotiationswhich followed the Marshal'sreturn to Leinster. He was one of the big men in Ireland. Had someassurances been given, some plan been discussed?Had Henry Clement had a part in them? And had Geoffrey been double-crossed and left to bear the full force of the king's wrath for his presencein the earl's forcesand his sharein the fight? This is all surmise.We do not, and cannot, know. But if something like this happened,it would help to explain what hashitherto 46 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND been a puzzle-the discrepancy between the action of Geoffrey de Marisco and the scandal which ever after was attached to his name; and it would account for the act of his sonWilliam. Neither Geoffreynor his sonhad had a pleasanttime since the fight on the Curragh. King Henry was able to make a distinction between the war in England and the war in Ireland. In each case it had been a straight war, not a rebellion,for Earl Richard had beenformally repudiatedin a legal act of dffidatio,or renunciationof the lord's responsibility to him as a vassal,just as someof his supportersin England had renounced their homage, and achievedthe same result in another way; but defeat none the lessmeant the loss of lands and rights, and in Ireland the earl and his followers had been defeatedand captured. For a time the king had tried, contrary to the spirit of the negotiationsin England, to deprive the Marshal's heir, Earl Gilbert, of someof his lands and rights. He failed in this, but he had no intention of including the other companionsof the Marshal in Ireland in the English settlement.The Irish Pipe Roll for rg Henry III -that is to say, for the year ending at Michaelmas 1235- contains a list of thirty-three names of landholders in the country of Limerick alone who had been fined for being against the king in the war with Richard the Marshal. Geoffrey de Marisco and his son William were each fined 3ooo marks or dzooo, and three of Geoffrey's nephews, William the son of Jordan de Marisco, John Travers and Richard de Marisco, had to pay, the first two dzoo, the last droo. These sums were the ransoms of men captured in battle. All five men were still in prison on 23 N{ay t234. Geoffreyand William were still there on e3 Septemberr2g+. Other barons and knights who had fought with the Marshal were free, someeven pardoned and releasedfrom their fines, 47 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND but Geoffreyand William were obviouslyconsidered to be in a separatecategorv. There is evidenceof negotiationswhich, if we knew more about them, would help us to understandthe position.' They seemto have beenreleased in Octoberor November, but they were still suspect,for on e7 November r2g+ we learn that two of Geoffrey's castles,Killorglin in Desmond and Holywood (de Sancto Bosco),probably Hollywood in co. Dublin, and one of William's castles,Coonagh in co. Limerick, had been retained by the king fz tenanciamfor the faithful serviceof the said Geoffrey and William. In Shake- speare'swords, they were enfranchisedwith a fetter and setat liberty with a clog. This seemsto have been their position at the time of the murder of Henry Clement in the following May, and we may suppose,without over-indulgencein fancy, that their presenceat Westminsterr.r'as due to their desireto cometo somepermanent understanding with King Henry.If this wereso, the evidencegiven by someof the rvitnessesin the .iudicial inquiry is intelligible enough: Henry Clement, William de Marisco was convinced,rvas doing his best to put difficultiesin his way. Geoffrey de Marisco fled for sanctuary to the Knights of the Hospital of St.John in Clerkenwell.Here I will leavehim for a time, while I follow the story of his son William, who was regardedas the chief murderer. It will be remembcredthat the king, only three days after the murder, had reasonto believe that William de Nfarisco and his companions were making for Lundy Island. The rNlaurice fitzGerald, the justiciar, n'as petsonally intcrested in preventing tlie releaseand retuln to ro.val favour of Ger'ffr'e,vrle \Iarisco :rnd his son. He rvasstill afraid ofthe tr{arshal'sparty in England, and so rvanted to hat'e a safe- conduct from its leader, Archbishop Edmuncl. This rvasin the autumn of 1234, before he canrc to f,rrgland. .\fter his reiru'n he sent Hertr)'Clt'rncrrt to Engl:-,nd on Irish business.air.l no doubt instructed him to prevent, if he coul.J,the cfftrrts of Geofiiey and \Viliiam to come to tetms."ith the king. -18 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND reason must have been a good one, for the statement is so explicit. Personswho fly from justice might, after much wandering, find their way to a remote place like Lundy Island; but if they go straight for it, like an arrow to its mark, they must have some closeassociation with it. Why was this conspicuousperson supposed to be seekinga refugeon a rocky island in the Bristol Channel?

g. William, Sonof Jordan de Mariscoand LundyIsland Lundy Islandis part of Devonshire.Its situationis succinctly describedin a charter of King Richard f as "in the seain the mouth of the river Severnbetween Tenby and Barnstaple". This is roughly correct, though the island is a good deal nearer to the Devon than to the Pembroke coast. It was granted to the Templars by King Richard, whosecharter I have cited. King John confirmed the grant; but when, in February 1227,in one of his first charters,Henry III confirmed the grants of his father to this military order, he omitted the grant of Lund,v Island. The chanceryand ex- chequer recordsenable us to understandwhat happened; but first let us look at a letter sentsoon after Henry Clement's murder: Grant to lVilliam sonofJordan de N{ariscisthat he may safely come out of his island of Lr"rnday lvith his men, come to England and stay there and retire from therel grant to him also that merchants rnav safell' go to and from his said island as they used to do; and mandate accordingly to all bailiffs. The date is Windsor, gJune r 235,only three weeksor so after the letters announcing the flight of William de Marisco. On the very sameday Geoffrey de \{arisco lvas allowed to leave the Hospital of St.John at Clerkenwellin safety,v'ith his men, except those who were charged with the death of Henry 49 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND Clement. William son ofJordan was Geoffrey'snephew, and it is obvious that he and his uncle had been busy clearing themselvesof any suspicionof complicity in the murder. And William son ofJordan had been conducting his sharein the negotiationsfrom his island of Lundy. Lundy was iis island. We can now understand why William son of Geoffrey was believedto have made for Lundy Island, and perhapswe can understandwhy its lord, William son ofJordan, was anxious to be allowed to leaveit. He had no wish to be confoundedin the royal mind with his cousin and his band of suspects. Lundy Island had, in fact, been held by the family of Marsh in the later twelfth century. When KingJohn came to the throne, an earlier William de l\4arisco,who had lands in Huntspill in Somerset,near the Bristol Channel, and other lands in the sameshire, had maintained his right to it. He had resistedthe new rights of the Templars and held the island againstthem and the king. He had in short, rebelledand had been outlawed. He was restoredto favour in Feburary reo4, and was put in charge of some of the royal galleys. The Templars were compensatedfor the loss of Lundy. This explains the omissionof the island from the charter of tzz7. Beforehe died, sometimeafter Septemberrze5, William had been in trouble again. He was a naval administrator in King John's service,and he hadjoined the rebelswho had supported Louis of Franceduring the civil war of r2r5-r7. He had put his wife, sonsand daughterson Lundy Island and gone to sea againsthis king. The island wascaptured but restoredto him, with his family, in November r2r7. This William-obviously an important man in his way among the knights of Somerset -was the brother of Geoffrey,thejusticiar of Ireland, and the father ofJordan, who was his successorat Huntspill. Jordan had been with his uncle Geoffrey in Ireland before he suc- ceededto the lands in Somersetand to Lundv Island. and his 50 PIRATES OF I,UNDY ISLAND son William who succeededhim in his turn ir rzg4 had done the same.When William, sonofJordan, is describedas a nepos of Geoffreyde Marisco, the word here meansgrand-nephew. What happened is quite clear. Jordan de Marisco had important holdingsin Ireland, where,like his uncle Geoffrey,he was closelyconnected with Richard the Marshal. When war broke out in England, his sympathiesnaturally led him tojoin the Marshal in the Southern Marches of Wales,not very far from Huntspill on the other side of the Bristol Channel. His son William, who was in Ireland, joined his uncle Geoffrey and was with him at the fight on the Curragh. It is not sur- prising that, when Jordan died, William, who had until recently been a prisoner of war and owed the king a ransom of 3oo marks (f,zoo), found much greater difficulty in getting possessionof his Irish lands than he had had in England. In fact, his kinship with his great-uncleGeoffrey and his cousin William kept him out of his castlesand lands in Ireland until October r237.His positionin Huntspill wasmore secure,but here also William son of Geoffrey'sunwelcome attentions to his island of Lundy brought him under suspicion,and, as we shall see,he was forced in n4g to surrenderthe island to the king. For sometime, owing to his cousin'suse of it as a base for robbery on land and piracy at sea)his rights there had been only nominal. He recoveredthe island in re8r, three yearsbefore he died.

4. William Son of Geofreyde Marisco turns Pirate. William de Marisco managed,somehow or other, to hold out in Lundy Island and elsewhereuntil 1242.Forseven years he lived desperately,a doomed man, as a pirate. Most outlaws just disappearedfrom history. They fled abroad, or skulked about in hiding, and were lost to view. William de Marisco lvasa man of a different kind, quite as respectablein his way 5l PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND as the famousmcn lvho srveptthe seasfrom the sameparts of England in the sixteenthcentury. He had no Spaniardsto prey upon, as Drake and Grenville had, no distant seasto roam. He stayedin home'rvaters,and ranged from the coasts of Galloway and Ireland to the Bristol Channel.His memories were incredibly bitter. He was consumedby a sense,not of wrong inflicted by himself, but of wrongs suffered. He nursedfeelings of peculiar hatred againstKing Henry. To the end he denied that he had killed Henry Clement; but his refusal to stand to justice, his flight and his later deedsof violencemade all denialsfutile. As an outlaw William lost his Irish lands.His wifeMatilda suffered with him. The king kept Matilda's cantred and castleofCoonagh in his handsfor a year and a day, according to the law in casesofforfeiture, and then, regarding them as an escheatof the see of Dublin, handed them over to the existingarchbishop, Luke. This wasin August r236. Whether his wifejoined William or not, we do not know. His depreda- tions began to causeanxiety in the early summer of rzg7. Although we may assumethat Lundy Island was alwaysone one of his placesof refuge, the records are silent about his control of the island until rz4r. It is quite possiblethat William used severalbases during the five or six years of his maritime activities.At first, the evidencesuggests, he worked from Scotland, probably from Gallorvay. In rz37 William de N{ariscowas again on the fringe of great events. Until outstanding disputes were settled in a generalagreement of peacebetrveen the trvo kings,Alexander II of Scotland seemedin this year to be heading for war againsthis brother-in-law, King Henry.Why this wasso, and what Alexander wanted, are not our concern; but it is clear that he hoped much from his friendsand relativesin England, and that some businessof a subterranean kind went on PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND between parties in the two countries. Williarn de Nlalisco played an obscurepart in the movement. On rB June the baronsof the various Cinque Portswere orderedto equip the king's galleysand a good ship from Winchelseaand to send them to Portsmouthto await orders.The reasongiven for this order was that certain evildoers,to wit, William de Marisco, his brother Robertr, and their accomplicesof the land of the King of Scotlandhad put to seawith galleysand werepreying upon the merchants and others crossing from Ireland to England. They had attacked and taken merchantsof Bristol, Dublin and Drogheda, killing some, wounding others and holding others to grievous ransom. A ferv da1'searlier the bailiffs of Bristol had been authorized to sell the merchandise on board the ships which had been attacked, up to the amount of the ransoms,so that the hostagescould be saved. Later letters sent to the bailiffs of Bristol give the names of merchants,including a Norman, who had sufferedfrom the marauders.A prison, in which the captivesor their hostages weredetained, is mentioned,and onethinks of Lundy Island. When such incidentsas theseoccurred, it was the duty of the bailiffs in the ports to take possessionof the ships attacked, and of any merchandisewhich might be recovered,until the rightful ownerscould appear and prove their ownership.The pirates wanted ransoms) not ships and goods. Also, ships could be held on suspicionafter a robbery at sea.The bailiffs of Bristol, the justiciar of Ireland, the earl of Ulster, the mayorsand good men of Dublin and Drogheda had detained ships and merchandise. The authorities in Ireland rvere orderedto restoreships and goods,"arrested on accountofa robberylately committed at seaby William de Marisco". It is significant that this order was made in letterssent from York

rProbably an er::or for Reginald de N{arisco. There is no other indication that the reputable Robert was an associateof \\'illiam. 53 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND on 28 Septenrber,when the treaty with the king of Scotswas announced.In their zeal the king's ministersin Ireland had also seizedthe lands of another William de Marisco, con- founding him perhaps with his kinsman, and the unhappy man had to seekredress from the king. I supposethat in him we may seethe son ofJordan.

5. Tlte Attemptto Murder King Henry at l4/oodstock,the Assault on Lund.yIsland and the Executionof William Sonof Geffiey deMarisco. William de Marisco came safely out of this adventure. The ransomsof the merchantsamounted to f,rzo. William was in funds, for dno sterlingwas a largesum in thosedays. A really good pirate story would tell us how exactly the money was paid over to him and how the hostageswere released;but we hear nothing about this, nor about the king's galleys at Portsmouth which ought to have been looking for him. Perhaps the merchants had found the king's bailiffs too attentive, and were glad to get away again with their ships and goodsand to say no more about their experience.At any rate, William turned in the following year to a much more dangerousand dreadful crime. He was believedto have con- trived a plot to murder the king, Henceforward,he wasworse than an outlaw. He was a traitor, proditorregis. The story is told by Matthew Parisin his bestmanner: On the morrow of the nativity of the BlessedMary [g Sept.rz3B], a certainmanat arrns,a man of someeduca- tion (armigerliteratus) came to the king'scourt at Woodstock. Pretendingto be mad, he said to the king: "Resignto me the kingdom which you have unjustly usurpedand long detained."And he addedthat he had the mark of royaltyon hisshoulder. When the king's servants ran uponhim, intend- ing to beathim and drivehim awayfrom theking's presence 54 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND the king checkedthem, saying " Let him alone in his folly." But in the middle of the night, the madman climbed into the king's sleeping chamber by the rvindorv, a naked knife in his hand, and came to the king's bed. He did not find him, and '"vasperplexed. He looked for him in various parts of the chamber. By the providence of God the king was with the queen. One of the queen's damsels, Margaret Biset, happened to be on duty. She was reciting her psalter by the light of a candle, ficr she was devout. When she saw the madman searchingevery corner so that he could kill the king, shout- ing wildly, she was astounded and began to scream. The servantswere awakened and came running in haste. They broke down the door which the burglar had barred, over- bore his resistance,seized him, bound him with chains and put him to the torture. At length he confessedthat he had been sent by William, son of Geoffrey de Marisco, to slay the king in the manner of the Assassins.He assertedthat others alsowere concernedin the crime. r Matthew goes on to describe in gruesome detail the execution of the would-be assassinat Coventry. His story, in its main lines, is confirmed by the records. The king was at Woodstock on g September rz3B, and on 20 September, when he was at Bridgenorth, he sent letters to the bailiffs of various ports, between Dover and Chester, ordering them to be on the look-out for William de Marisco and his accomplices, and if possible to catch them. He told how William had recently plotted his death, "as we know for certain through a certain ribald whom he sent to kill us and our queen". On the same day another letter was sent to the sheriff of Kent, for the king had learned on the best evidence tChronica majora, iii. 497-8. The phrase morc Assassinorwn is used else- where by Mattherv Paris in reference to emissaries of murder (e.g., Historia Anglorum,ed. Madden, iii. lr). The reference, of course, is to the Isn:ailians of the Lcbanon, ruled by the Old l\{an of the Mountain. The St. Albans chronicler, Roger Wendover, had incorporated a long account of their alleged cu-stomsfrom William of Tyre, and this was well known to Matthew Paris (Roger of Wend- over, ed. Coxe, ii. 145-7). For the Ismailians see R. Grousset, Histoire dcs eroisades,iii (I936), in the index, pp.Br3-4.

OD PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND that William was in that part of England. William, then, was in England. He was not captured, and somehowor other managed to survive until tz4z, when at last a definite and successlirlattempt was made to dislodge him from Lundy Island. By this time his marauding exploits on seaand land were notorious. Somethinghad to be done about them.t According to Matthew Paris, certain nobleswho had passed near the island on their way from Ireland and had made inquiries, reported to the king how he could bestcapture him and his men. They had learned that guile lvas necessary. Direct assault would be of no use. However this may be, Henry took measures.In December rz4r the sheriff of Devon captured three men of William's "society" and by the king's orderssent them to the sheriffof Hampshire, who put them in the prison at Winchester.Early in January the men of Bristol handed over William's wife to the constable of Gloucestercastle. In the meantime the men of Devon were ordered to take counselhow best to guard their coastagainst incursionsfrom the king's enemieson Lundy Island. If they failed to take effectiveaction, Henry Tracy and three other local landholdershad power to deviseplans at the costof the shire.This last order was made on J February. Finally, when the spring had come, an assaultrvas made on the island. The operations rvere under the control of William Bardolf, a Norfolk baron, who was sent down to Devonshire by the government'. A certain Richard de Chilham was sent to Bardolf's assistancev'ith two knights and a dozen men-at- lThe abbot of Margam in Glamorgan aroused the king's indignation against him, becauseon one occasion, probably early in r24:, hc "received" \\'illiam and his men. 'zTheking saileclon his Gascon expedition in llay rz4z. and the council left in England rvas rcally responsible for putting an end to \Viliiam de },Iarisco. \\'illiam Bardoll, hcir to the honour of \Vormegav, rvasHubert de Bureh's step- son, being the son of Hubert's second u'ife, Beatrice de Warenne, by her first husband. PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND '.fhey arms in the end of \{ay. succeededin capturing the outlaws. In a later copy of his chronicleN{atthew Paris added a story that William was betrayed by one of his men, whom he had detained on the island against his rvill. The rocks protecting the place could only be scaledat one point, and William imprudently set this man to guard the weak spot. It was a misty day, and William was sitting at meat when the king's men came.William and his band were taken to Bristol, where he and his more porverful men were put in the safest and strongestpart of the main tower of the castle,and the rest in the town. Burgesseswere appointed to join with the constableof the castlein keepingguard over them. A day or two later arrangements$'ere made for the transferenceof the outlawsto London (r6June r2+2).William Bardolf was to hand over William de Marisco and four or fir,e of the more important prisonerswhom he had capturedto the constable of the Tower. Ofthe othersas many ascould be safelyguarded there were to be put into Nervgateprison, the restin the Fleet. The constable and wardens of these prisons were straitly ordered to put their dangerouscharges in irons and in strong places.The treasurerwas askedto provide as many suitable men to guard thern as were required to prevent any possible risk ofescape. On r4July the constableof the Toruer,Richard de Bovill, delivered William de lV{arisco,Aimeri de Beaufeu,Reginald de Nfarisco,Robert de \'fontibus and William's chamberlain Richard, for trial. Others were tried with them, for Matthew Paris describesthe execution of William rvith sixteen com- panionson z5 July. The murderersof Henry Clement, it will be noticed,had disappearedby le4e. These are new conl- panions. They lvere taken from Westminsterto the Tower, and thence dragged by horses to the "penal machine, vulgarly known as the gibbet", on which they were hanged.

DI PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND The nranuscript of the chronicle contains at this point a lively drawing of William being dragged to execution. The unhappy knight lieson the ground. Ropesare attachedby one end to his feet,by the other to the horse'scollar. A young man sitting on the horselooks back at him with curiosity'. Before his execution William made his confessionto the famous Dominican, John of St. Giles, a belovedfriend of the bishop of Lincoln, Robert Grosseteste.

6. TheRelatiues of William deMarisco. The Episoded theAbbess of Shaftesbury. The names of two or three relatives of William, who were apparently his companions, are known. Two of them, Richard de l{arisco and Geoffrey de Marisco, parson of Bathymegait, were clerks. Their tonsure savedthem, and they were taken from the Tower to the castleof Devizes.fn lz44 Bishop Grossetestedemanded benefit of clergy on behalf of an Adam de Marisco, a clerk of hisdiocese,who was in prison at York on a chargeof robbing foreign merchantsat Stamford and Grantham. Adam was handed over to the bishop on the condition that he entereda religiousorder and left the kingdom. Unless a family failing, the robbery of merchants,connects them, I have no evidencethat Adam and William were related or had worked together.Five men who were captured on the island of Lundy, but presumablywere not membersof the society,r,r'ere taken to Exeter. At the end of the year they were allowed bail to await the arrival of the justices. Matilda, the wife of William de Marisco, must have had friends at court and in Ireland. She was kept at Gloucester until the summer of tz4g, whcn the king, in letterssent from rThe drarving is reproduced by M. R. James in "The drawings of Matthew Paris" (Walpolc Societl, xjv, r926, Plate XVI). 58 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND

Bordeaux on 20 June, ordered her release. The council executed this order early in July, and a month later gave Matilda letters which authorized the mayor and bailiffs of Bristol to deliver to her the chattels-about four pounds in money, a silver drinking-cup and a kerchief valued at ten shilling-taken from her when she was arrested.Two of her servantswere not set free till the end of the following year (November rz44) after judicial inquiry had elicited nothing against them except that they had been with her. These unhappy men had been in gaol at Gloucesterfor two and a half years. lv{atilda in the meantime had been trying to get back her castlesand lands in Ireland. This r,r,asa very slow business,for, as we have seen,her marriage portion, given to her by her uncle Henry, archbishop of Dublin, many years before, had escheatedto the archbishopric of Dublin, and I{atilda had to show that the reigning archbishop, Luke- Hubert de Burgh's former confessorand friend-had no right to hold it. The casedragged on fromJune r2+4,when shefirst got an order for the restoration of her lands, until at least August tz47,when Matilda, after shehad obeyeda command to come to the king, no doubt to give him proper assurances, was at last put in possessionof Coonaghand her other castle at Blathach near Limerick. The legal point at issuehad been an interestingone. Inspection of Archbishop Henry's charter revealedthe fact that his grant to tr{atilda wassealed with the sealsof his two chaptersof St. Trinity and St. Patrick as well as with his own. Her title was a good one. The questionthen arose, could the outlawry of her husband affect the wife's possessionof her maritagium?The answerlvas that forfeiture of the wife's maritagiumdid notfollow. Matilda's lands,therefore, should never have been escheated. King Henry and his council were very thorough in their dealingswith the relativesof William de Marisco.Justicewas 59 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND incredibly slow, suspicious,remorseless, yet in the endjustice was done. There were two kinsmen of William, John and Richard, who seemto have been detained at Chester,while inquiries were made in Ireland. The justiciar's investiga- tions showed that they had not "consentedr,r'ith the felony and deliberatemalice" ofWilliam. SoinJune rz44 thejustice of Chester was ordered to deliver them to the justiciar of Ireland, 'rvho,after they had given security that their release would result in no harm to king and realm, was to set them free and put them in seisinof their lands. And there was the nun who u'as allegedto be a relative of the traitor. This was Agnes Ferrers,a nun of the abbey of St. Edward at Shaftes- bury. As its patron and a devoteeof its patron saint, King Henry felt a deep personal interest in the fortunes of this famous house. Its dignity was a reflection of his own. The nuns wcre anxious to make Agnes Ferrers their abbess,but unfortunately the vacancy occurred in tz4z, the year of William's execution.She was elected,but the king, then in Gascony, refused to confirm the election, and she had the good senseto renounceher claim. The executionof her kinsman was too recent. When the new abbess,Agnes Longspie, a nun of Wherwell, died in t246, and the nuns got licenceto elect,they again wishedto have AgnesFerrers as their abbess. The king was still opposedto the idea. He ordered Robert Passelew,the custodian of the abbey during the vacancy,to appeal publicly in his name, if the nuns proceededto elect Agnes, "rvhatever spirit might lead them". Agnes,he wrote, "is sprung ofthe blood oftraitors, and the king hasother good grounds of exception to her, which, when put forward and proved, rvould make her utterly ineligible and put her out of consideration (repulsa)".This was strong language; but the nuns \{ere not frightened by it, and the bishop of Salisbury wasbrought upon the scene.The great issueof liberty to elect 60 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND wasraised,andsomecompromisehadtobereached. Henryand the bishop agreed that, without prejudice to the church of Salisbury,a royal clerk might on this peculiaroccasion be sent to take part in the proceedingson the king's behalf and to examinethe electionin his interests,In October 1246,five months after the trouble had begun, Nlaster William of Powick was sent.The deadlockmust have continued,for in November we find that the jurisdiction of Canterbury had been invoked. The nuns had presumably appealed to the provincial court. By this time the king was getting weary; he gave his clerk, tr{aster Roger de Cantilupe, full power to settlethe affair with the archbishop'sofficial, and by the end of the year all w-aswell. OngJanuary r2+7theroyalassent to the electionof AgnesFerrers u'as given, and a mandatewas sent to the dean and chapter of Salisbury to do their part therein. lVe see horv at every turn the murder of Henry Clement, years before, led to difliculties in the lives and fortunesof innocent men and women whom we should never expect to be involved, to high questionsof law and politics, to problems in the relations between church and state, to issuesaffectine the rvelfareof the kingdom and the dignity of the crown. We haveyet to seewhat happenedto Lundy Islandand to the old Geoffreyde Marisco, the traitor's father.

7. Tlte Fortifcationof LundyIsland King Henry, who was kept informed of events,was deter- mined not to let go of Lundy Island. The exploitsof William de l\{arisco and the difficulty in dislodginghim had revealed its importance. At some time dr,rringthe recent operations against William he had taken the precaution of seizingthe 6I PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND lands of William son of Jordan, the nominal tenant of the island, and always, at his home in Huntspill, a possibleally of his cousin. Henry, as the phrasewent, wished to speakof certain things againsthim, in his court. One of thesematters, no doubt, washis ransom,not yet fully paid; another,we may be sure, was his responsibility as tenant for the deplorable behaviour of his outlawed relative in Lundy Island. The object in view was, of course,the return of the island to the crown. In June n4g at Bordeaux the seneschalof Gascony became surety for William's appearance in court, when required, and the king gave orders for the restoration of all William's lands in Somersetand Ireland, "with the exception of the island of Lundy, rvhich the king wishesto retain in his own hands". The council in England had not awaited the issueof these formalities. William Bardolf, before he left the island, had made arrangementsfor the erection of a stone tower, and a constableof Lundy had been appointed. Towards the end of June lz43 Henry Tracy, lord of the honour of Barnstaple,and the greatestman in the parts of Devon oppositethe island, who had goneto court to report on local affairs,returned with ordersfrom the council. These referred to the distribution of the wagesof the men who had taken and were guarding the island-Henry Tracy brought dloo with him for this purpose -but they also contained the information that a very important person indeed might be expectedearly in August. One of the three chief men in the sovernment. William de Cantilupe, the seneschal of the royal household, was coming down in person to take charge of the island. Nothing could reveal more clearly the seriousview taken at court of the activitiesof William de N{arisco.Before the great man arrived, Henry Tracy was instructed to go to Lundy 62 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND with the sheriff and to decide whether the time was suitable for the construction of the fort which William Bardolf had planned. By time, rve should understandweather, for it was no easy matter, even if the stone could be quarried on the spot, to get materials acrossand to carry on building operations. The castlewas begun, as we learn from a letter of the following April. The constableof Lundy-I supposeWilliam de Cantilupe'sdeputy-had caughtz5oo rabbits on theisland, and the sheriffof Devon wastold to sellthe skins"by view and witnessof lawful men" and place the proceedstowards the expenseof building the new tower. This rocky place contained somethingmore preciousthan rabbits. There tvas an eyrie of falcons, which about this time was given by King Henry to one of his favourite clerks.One beginsto get a vivid impression of Lundy, with its castle, rabbit-warrens and birds, and, I should add, its shipping, for the constablehad a galley at his disposal. William de Cantilupe wasrelieved of his responsibilityfor Lundy Island in N{ay rz44 and wassucceeded as constable by Richard Clifford. A changewas made, however, inJuly r245. A constablesent from outside had not much to do and was expensive; hence the government decided to entrust the island to Henry Tracy, the man who by this time must have known most about it. He and Richard Clifford made an agreement by indenture-that is to say, Henry Tracy receivedthe island with its stock and profit, and the details of the transaction were described in documents identical exceptfor the namesof the parties.Henry kept Richard's and Richard kept Henry's. Henry was to hold the island for the king at the royal pleasure,and in return was allowed to keep all profits and make what he could out of it. So the island remainedlegally in the king's hands,but without any expense to the royal treasury. 63 riI ,lq I PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND I The memory of William de Marisco is enshrinedin that invaluable work, Samuel Lewis'sA TopograplticalDictionary of England(rB4o), in the articleon Lundy Island: It is recordedthat oneMorisco, having been frustrated in a conspiracyto assassinateHenrl' III, niadethis his retreat, I becamethe chief of a band of pirates, and for his crimes l'as I executed here by conrmand of the king; and also that l Edrvard II, at one time during his disturbed reign, proposed I retiring hither for safetyfrom his lebellious ncbles.Morisco's j castle,situated near the south-easternpoint, rvas originally a strong fortification, with coirsiderableoutu'orks: it is en- compassedby a moat, but no oldnance are now mounted upon the battery, though a few dismantled guns occupy the

ramparts, beneath which is a remarkable cave. I I The true story is good, but this is better. That frustrated i gentleman, William N,Iarsh, has become Nlorisco. His name t has a fine Barbary flavour. The castle is his; William Bardolf did not plan it, Henry Tracy and the sheriff of Devon and William de Cantilupe took no part in the building of it. lVforisco's ghost walks among grass-grown batteries in the garb of Captain Kidd or Long John Silver. Romance has taken William N{arsh for its own. He breathes the spice- laden air of the Indies; he brings to the Bristol Channel the spirit of the corsairs of the I'Iediterranean. His exotic, mysterious figure moves in the company of the sea dogs of Devon. He is hanged on his island, where there is a remarkable cave.

B. The End of Geffiry de Marisco

And now, in the end, we must come back to Williarn's father, Geoffrey de Marisco, lord of Killorglin, once the servant of KingJohnandjusticiarof Ireland.We left him in sanctuaryin 64 t

I PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND Clerkenwell,just after the murder of Henry Clement in May t235. Although he had no sharein the crime, he had run to shelter, afraid that he would be involved in the fury which was to break his son. Before long he was released from I suspicion.In August r 235the king took him into his graceand I gavehim lettersof protection while he wasin England trying j to arrange for the payment of his healy ransom. He was I allowed to pay this on easier terms and could go back to j Ireland and receivepossession of his lands there. Till rz38 he was trying to regain possessionof Kilmallock, which he claimed to hold of the bishopof Limerick, Hubert de Burgh, a

I nephew of his famousnamesake. Geoffrey had subinfeudated I Kilmallock to his son the outlaw, and the bishop, in flat I contradiction to the rules of feudal law, had seizedit as an t I escheatafter William's disgrace.The escheat,after being held a a year and a day by the king, should have goneto its immedi- ate lord, William's father. How far Geoffreywas successfulin his caseagainst the bishop is not clear. By rz38 he was in trouble becausehe had not paid the instalmentsof his ransom, and as he had no lands in England, where the money shouldhave beenpaid, thejusticiar of Ireland wasordered by the king to distrain on his lands in Ireland "to satisfyusforthe fine at our exchequerin Dublin". \{attherv Paris, who always had some authority for his stories,however much he distorted them, givesa much more gloomy picture of the old man's last years.One of his scan- dalousremarks is illuminating. Matthew, in spite of the cap- ture of Geoffrey at the Curragh and the murder of Henry Clernentby his son, was firmly convincedthat Geoffrey had betrayed Richard the Marshal. He could think no good of him. Naturally enough, therefore,he saysthat Geoffrey had incited William de Mariscoto plot the assassinationof the king 65 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND in rz38. Now we may be sure that what he thought, others thought, and, when we rememberhow carefully the king and his servants traced out and held in suspicion William's relativesbetrveen rz38 and 1242)we cannot assumethat Geoffrey,his father, escapedattention. I suggestthat after the attempt on the king's life at Woodstockin September rz3B, Geoffrey'slands in Ireland were seized,and that this explains his disappearance.The end had come. He was an outlaw for the death of a man.' King Henry, Matthew Paris writes, was informed that, after the executionofhis son, Geoffrey had gone to Scotland and had been received by King Alexander II. He had probably gone earlier than rz4z. Scotland was, in fact, the only refugein the British Islesopen to him, and his connection with the Comyns may have encouragedhim to seekprotec- tion there, for the head of the Scottish branch of this wide- spread family was one of the chief men in Scotland. The reception of Geoffrey de N{ariscowas one of the grievances which King Henry had against King Alexander and Walter Comyn, when he made a military demonstration against Scotland two years later, in n44.'Ihe ejection of Geoffrey from Scotland may well have been one of the unwritten understandingsat the time when peacewas made2.The un- huppy man, in any case,was forced to leave. He died in the followingyear (r245).

lGeoffrey de l\Iarisco is so described in t244, in a royal letter which also describes him a tenant in Linford (Bucks.) and Crowmarsh (Oxfordshire). These lands were not his but had come to him in right of his third wife, Alice wido'rv of Roger Pipard and daughter of the great Anglo-Irish lord Hugh de Lacy I. Hence in rl3B he could be said to have no lands in England, 2The carta of King Alexander (August l244) contained, as its main clause, a promise that he would make no pacts with Henry's enemies (Rymer, Foedera, r, i. 257). This would cover the case of Geoffrey de Marisco, although its object was to prevent any understanding between Alexander and the French. 66 PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND

Matthew Paris, pitilessto the end, reports his death in a studiedepitaph: About this time died Geoffreyde Marisco,a man once nobleand not the leastamong the magnatesof trreland.In exile and misery,a fugitive,he rvasstained indelibly with the deathby treasonof Richard earl N{arshal.Driven from Scotland,banished from England,disinherited in Ireland, he survivedthe disgracefuldeath of his sonand the lossof all hisfriends, to endthe taleof deathlr'ith hisor'r'n.

g. Epilogue

The searchafter truth plays strangetricks with an historian. He setsout to tell a plain straightforwardstory, and he finds himselfrunning about in all sortsof places.Insensibly the interestof his storyis mergedin thc excitementof the chase. He cannotbring himselfto believethat hisreaders will not be asinterested as he has beenin seeinghow one point leadsto another,how this fact throwslight on that, why one clue has to be discarded,and anotherpursued to the end.As Maitland oncervrote: "Out of the thicketmay fly a bird worth porvder and shot"; but the thicketmust be a clue,not any thicket,and the bird must be worth powderand shot,not any bird. If this condition is observed,the story becomesmore than a story; it breathesa troubled life of its own aspart of a living past. The things which first stirred interest, the picturesque, the amusing,the dramatic, are still there, but are no longer the essentialthings. Sometimes, as I work at a seriesof patentand closerolls, I havea queersensation; the deadentries begin to be alive.It is rather like the experienceof sittingdown in one's chair and finding that one hassat on the cat. Theseare real people, this casual official letter is telling something that really happened,it was written on the impulse of a real PIRATES OF LUNDY ISLAND emotion. To be sure that this William is William son of Geoffreyand not William sonofJordan becomesas important as any problem ofidentity can be in a court oflaw to-day. It is necessaryto take great care, no longer in the interestsof learning, but for their sakes.I fear that the historian is quite incorrigible, when he has once had this experience. He becomesindifferent to insinuationsof pedantry; for pedantry is a kind of darkness,and he is trying to let in the light. All the same,the story of William Marsh is a gift to any good historical novelist.