But Stephen was so bent upon capturing the empress that he laid siege to the fortress she occupied and reduced her to such distress for want of provisions that she escaped one night with only four attendants. The fugitives dressed themselves from head to foot in white, and as the ground was all covered with snow, they moved noiselessly and unnoticed along, protected by the banks of snow and ice along the Thames, through a blinding storm that flew full in their faces. When at a safe distance from the castle, they walked faster, over hedges and ditches, until they reached a town six miles off, where they obtained horses and rode on to Wallingford the same night. There the empress met her brother, who had just returned from Normandy. The Count of Anjou had not seen fit to comply with the request of his wife's party for assistance, but compromised by sending Prince Henry to see his mother, keeping their other child, Geoffrey, with {088}him. He was evidently not anxious to see her himself. Three years later the count sent a train of Norman nobles to England to reclaim his heir. The Duke of Gloucester accompanied his nephew part of the way, and then bade him farewell forever; for he died in October, 1147. Deprived of the support of this true-hearted brother, the Empress Matilda abandoned hope and left England, nearly all of her friends having deserted her. Stephen and Matilda were so delighted at the departure of the empress, and the establishment of peace, that they celebrated the following Christmas with unusual splendor, and prevailed upon some of the barons to swear fealty to their son, Eustace, then thirteen years old, and acknowledge him as heir-apparent to the throne. In 1148, Queen Matilda founded and endowed the Church of St. Katherine, by the tower; also the Royal Abbey of Feversham in Kent. Then she spent a few months quietly at the convent. But her health had begun to decline, and she died of a fever on the 3d of May, 1151, at the age of forty-seven. She was buried at the new abbey of Feversham, and was deeply lamented by all who knew her. About three years later Stephen was laid beside his beloved queen. [Illustration: 0092] {089} CHAPTER VI. ELEANORA OF AQUITAINE, QUEEN OF HENRY II. (A.D. 1134-1204.) |Eleanora was born in the beautiful province of Aquitaine, a name that Julius Caesar gave to the south of Gaul on account of its numerous rivers and fine ports. The people liked the name and adopted it; but it was really the ancient kingdom of Provence. Eleanora and her sister Petronilla were daughters of William, Count of Poitou, such a good, pious man,'that as he happened to be in the Holy Land at the time of his death, he was forever after called St. William.