Cedric for a moment gazed out of window. Then he said to me: “This keeping in durance of an ecclesiastic who was appointed to his place by the King and moreover stands high in his favor, is a difficult and dangerous business. ’Twill be better if we take him to the town’s edge and turn him loose to find his way back whence he came.” The Abbot gazed at Cedric with parted lips and bated breath while one might have told two score. Then of a sudden he flung the parchment on the table and laughed full loud and long. “Thou hast won, De La Roche. I yield me. Thou hast won and fairly. Thou’rt a most persuading speaker, I’ll be bound. I will go before our group this day, and make them adopt these articles whether they will or no. Then to-morrow I will speak for them before the whole assembly. Thou shalt see what I can do when I am well put to it. Depend upon it, the articles of that very scroll that lies before us will be the ones our party will present to the King. And thou, on thy part, shall have due watch and ward kept of thy prisoner, and see to it that he by no means gains his liberty until the King hath sealed our charter and pledged himself to interfere no more in our clerical elections.” The Abbot was as good as his word. That afternoon he delivered such an address in eulogy of the articles as they appeared in this latest scroll as I had never heard before on any subject whatsoever. He marshalled all the arguments Cedric had used together with many more he had not thought on. His speech was filled with grace and eloquence and was of an enthusiasm that carried all away. He showed beyond all doubt the power that would accrue to our party through this inclusion of the rights of the commonalty in our charter. When he was done De Longville as strongly favored these provisions in the articles as on the day before he had opposed them. Lord Esmond grimly held his peace, though oft shaking his gray head in denial, and soon the scroll had been adopted by our vote of four to one. The following day our ardent champion made a yet more eloquent speech before the full assembly; and the articles were approved by acclamation. All know the remainder of the tale of Magna Charta,—how the King, three days later, at Brackley where the articles were read to him, refused them with an oath, furiously declaring that the barons might as well have asked of him his kingdom,—how we resumed the war forthwith and the taking of his castles,—how the gates of London were opened to us and the King was at length brought to terms at Runnymede. There again ’twas Cedric De La Roche and the Abbot of Moberley who conferred with the Archbishop and the other commissioners of the King and satisfied themselves and us that the completed scroll that received the royal seal was to the same effect as our articles of Stamford and Brackley.