if', ^:i^^(r' i -I'^^i, ^ wmlam, NEWARK BOOK SOCIETY. RECEIVED. FORWARDED. .<%^^ APvMif Mr, Burnell^ president — Clay .... — Trebeck , . fjoid E. IlilL. Mr, Sherbrooke AA / M/ — Walker ./. /x, ^;r?^LJi-rr>^^<^^ — Sutton BiddeliS^,^ 4^- — Y/^^f.^ — Godfrey\j — Marslan(^ ^/<PV^i^. ^7///// /^ ^- Hcmdley J^J^//^6 material is re- The oerson charging this the hbrary from lonsTb e for its return to on or before the which it was withdrawn below. Latest Date stamped action and may result for disciplinary the University. L161—O-1096 hu^ II B R.AR.Y OF THE UNIVE.R5ITY or ILLINOIS T833 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign http://www.archive.org/details/stephanlangton02tupp % o)^<--' ' ^> # ^ w> ^5 @A CONTENTS THE SECOND VOLUME. CHAPTER I. The relic 1 CHAPTER 11. Old Paris and the confessor of St. Etienne's ... 8 CHAPTER III. A court-day at the Louvre 21 CHAPTER IV. The cunning of Philip Augustus 29 CHAPTER V. Angelique, and news of a brother 34 CHAPTER VI. Hal's Embassies 40 VI CONTENTS. r CHAPTER VII. Angelique's Adventure by the way .... 48 CHAPTER VIII. The Murderer and his Victim 70 CHAPTER IX. The Churl arraigns the King 78 CHAPTER X. An acolyte and his sister 87 CHAPTER XL Eeligion and its persecutors 93 CHAPTER XII. An orthodox sister and an orthodox sermon . .100 CHAPTER XIII. The Auto-da-fe . 106 CHAPTER XIV. About Angelique's and Simon's antecedents . 120 CHAPTER XV. Escape; disguise: Hal's martyrs 135 CHAPTER XVI. How to deal with a dilemma, and how to please a Pope . 141 CONTENTS. VI- CHAPTER XYII. Reygate cavern 150 CHAPTER XVIII. A miracle ; and its exposition 160 CHAPTER XIX. A new Primate . 169 CHAPTER XX. John's finger-rings ; and tlie interdict .... 176 CHAPTER XXL A brotherly meeting : and Angelique's position . 183 CHAPTER XXII. The scourge : and Simon at Winchester . 191 CHAPTER XXIII. Simon and Angelique pay certain visits . .197 CHAPTER XXIV. Excommunication and Deposition 209 CHAPTER XXV. Armorica 218 CHAPTER XXVI. A Call at the Alhambra , ^ ^ . .227 Vlll CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXVII. A Shipwreck 234 CHAPTER XXVIII. Pandulph and his Homager 241 CHAPTER XXIX. An Interview long looked for 250 CHAPTER XXX. A Gallop to Runne-mead 262 CHAPTER XXXI. Magna Charta 268 CHAPTER XXXII. Lewis the Dauphin 279 CHAPTER XXXIII. John's end w 284 CHAPTER XXXIV. All achieved 293 CHAPTER XXXV. A good man's death 299 CHAPTER XXXVI. And Burial .304 CHAPTER XXXVII. Repeated 309 : STEPHAN LANGTON. CHAPTER I. W^z Eelic. A VERITABLE fragment of the True Cross ! Stephan saw at once the immense advantage of possessing such a treasure : it was nothing more than a simple fact that he held in his hand the means of propitiating kings and popes the eiiVnest errand of his life for England might wondrously be speeded by that magic sacket. But its authenticity was everything ; and must be set out clearly at all risks ; even though on the threshold a difficulty lay in the way of VOL. IL B 2 STEPHAN LANGTON. securing this, which nothing but a perilous frankness could overcome. And Stephan acted with that frank wisdom. He forthwith sought out and secured a the pre- notary ; and requesting (through Hal) sence of the worshipful chief- magistrate of Rouen in the Abbot's audience-room, Stephan went straight before his Superior with the palmer and his relic. First, he explained openly his own true name and story : then that of his father, so strangely after six lustres restored as from the dead : and, by the time ihe notary and mayor had come, all was clear and ready in the Abbot's mind for attestation. Then, before those two legal officers and their attendant witnesses, the palmer told his tale ; his own antecedents being vouched for by Hal, his ancient neighbour, and Stephan,—then better known as Le Frere Antoine, his excellent son. The cross-examination was sharp, and its result STEPHAN LANGTON. 3 satisfactory : everything asserted found its proofs : and thus the document of authenticity was drawn up in due form : whereof Stephan demanded (and no doubt duly pai4 for) seven attested counterparts, which those gowned wit- nessing clerks copied on the spot at the Abbot's table. Then, in the presence of all producing the holy morsel, Stephan with a miserere dagger divided its crumbling antiquity into seven equal portions. One, for his father, who reverently received it : one, for the Austin College of Rouen,—to the Abbot's infinite gratitude and wonder : and the remaining five, each sealed in its attesting document with all due legal forms, did the prudent patriot reserve for good uses whereof we may be told hereafter. And so the needful ceremony came to an end. A great consequence remained : Rouen, Eng- lish Rouen, King John's frequent haunt, was no longer an asylum for a monk, however famous B 2 ; 4 STEPHAN LANGTON. or learned, whose name judicially avowed was Stephan Langton. He must find some other home ; —as the Abbot kindly but firmly told him at once; and in no small fear and trembling for John's vindictiveness was dreaded, in es- pecial by the monks and friars. Stephan at night thought it all out on his pallet : and this was the result. The faithful Hal should first escort his poor old father home again : aided on his difficult way, as the expe- rienced rough Mercury well knew how, by Robin's emissaries passim, and an occasional friendly litter or saddle-back when obtainable for the poor crippled squire of Wodetone. With this embassage Stephan sent one of his five pre- cious p:cquets, —and perhaps a still more pre- cious letter full of earnest love,—to Alice : whereof anon. For his ow^n safety, a notable opening offered which another of his magical pacquets might avail to expand still further. Philip the Second *'STEPHAN LANGTON. 5 of France, better known by the complimentary alias of Philip Augustus, having espoused the cause of Arthur the undoubted heir-legitimate of England, was just now in open antagonism against King John. No naan could be more welcome to his most Christian Highness than an English foe of the usurper ; and if to boot that foe were a celebrated author scholar and divine, all the better ; and best of all, if he happened to be one able and willing to bestow on some chief religious house, (or on the King himself if he wished it,) so rare if not unique a relic as a real bit of the True Cross. After the battle of Tiberias, the Saracens had burnt the whole of the remainder captured in battle and half-buried under the slain : old Hugh Langton's morsel was probably the only genuine bit in existence : he himself believed that it had miraculously saved him ; for, lying half dead among that heap of bodies, flung aside by those Paynim who had seized the Holy ; STEPHAN LANGTON. Rood, he had strangely found succour for life on the spot where he lay like Hagar's Ishnaael for the mangled body of some provident esquire lying close beside him in the heap kindly wore a wallet, and in it was a flask of wine and some bread. Hugh transferred the precious relic he had bitten from his mouth to his pouch, ate and drank as one of John's own starved hostages should have done ; and, by such timely food well strengthened, after awhile crept away from those festering bodies, and got help of some literal good Samaritans ; and having undergone years of hardship and encountered a world of adven- tures is—where now we find him. The relic, valeat quantum^ was undoubtedly genuine and authentic. Here then was a bribe for a king, if need be : a bribe to help Liberty and England ; for Stephan Langton never was selfish. It was clear what he ought to do, and whither to go. Armed with the " testamur " of the Abbot of Rouen STEPHAN LANGTON. 7 and his council, the famous Praelector should straightway make all speed for Paris. These were his pallet thoughts, and he acted on them, as his wont was, instantly. STEPHAN LANGTON. CHAPTER II. ©Iti ^mi&t anti tje Conf£000r of ^t. I£twnne*0. The speediest, easiest and safest way for Stepban to get from Rouen to Paris was by water. In spite of tbe swift Seine contrary tbrougbout, and aU tbe perils from its rude bankdwellers, tbat silent higbway was infinitely more practicable tban tbe land tracks tbrougb forests and marsbes infested by bestial as well as buman wolves. I cannot stop to cbronicle our fugitive monk's adventures for tbat long travel of danger : bow well for a disguise bis old forester-livery of Sir Guy de Marez bested ; STEPHAN LANGTON. y him ; how prudently the monastic habit with some books and parchments and especially certain manuscript works of his own (afterwards world-famous) made up the forester's bundle and how gradually he won his way to Paris in the craft of a sturdy fisherman ; surely these dreary details need only such a touch or two as thus to set the facts clearly before you. Suffice it that on the sixth day, having set out on a rainy moonless night and so escaped the river guard, he duly got on shore near the chained logs floating at the water gate, handy to King Philip's new round-tower at the Louvre. Mediaeval Paris at the opening of the thir- teenth century was less than a twelfth part of its present greatness.