[404] "Interea ex turre pontificis jaculatum incendium in domos burgensium (qui, ut dixi, proniores erant imperatricis felicitati) comprehendit et combussit abbatiam totam sanctimonialium intra urbem, simulque cænobium quod dicitur ad Hidam extra" (_Will. Malms._, p. 752). "Qui intus recludebantur ignibus foras emissis majorem civitatis partem sed et duas abbatias in favillas penitus redegerunt" (_Gesta_, p. 83). "Siquidem secundo die mensis Augusti ignis civitati immissis, monasterium sanctimonialium cum suis ædificiis, ecclesias plus XL cum majori seu meliori parte civitatis, postremo cænobium monachorum Deo et Sancto Grimbaldo famulantium, cum suis ædibus redegit in cineres" (_Cont. Flor. Wig._, p. 133). It is from this last writer that we get the date (August 2), which we should never have gathered from William of Malmesbury (who mentions this fire in conjunction with the burning of Wherwell Abbey, at the close of the siege) or from the _Gesta_. M. Paris (_Chron. Maj._, ii. 174) assigns the fire, like William of Malmesbury, to the end of the siege, but his version, "Destructa est Wintonia XVIII kal. Oct., et captus est R. Comes Glovernie die exaltationis Sancte Crucis," is self-stultifying, the two dates being one and the same. The Continuator's date is confirmed by the independent evidence of the _Hyde Cartulary_ (among the Stowe MSS.), which states that on Saturday, the 2nd of August ("Sabbato IIII. non. Augusti"), the city was burned by the bishop's forces, "et eodem die dicta civitas Wyntonie capta est et spoliata." From this source we further obtain the interesting fact that the Conqueror's palace in the city ("totum palatium cum aula sua") perished on this occasion. Allusion is made to this fact in the same cartulary's account of a council held by Henry of Winchester in the cathedral, in November, 1150, where the parish of St. Laurence is assigned the site "super quam aulam suam et palacium edificari fecit (Rex Willelmus)," which palace "in adventu Roberti Comitis Gloecestrie combustum fuit." The Continuator (_more suo_) assigns the fire to the cruelty of the bishop; but it was the ordinary practice in such cases. As from the tower of Le Mans in 1099 (_Ord. Vit._), as from the tower of Hereford Cathedral but a few years before this (_Gesta Stephani_), so now at Winchester the firebrands flew: and so again at Lewes, in far later days (1264), where on the evening of the great battle there blazed forth from the defeated Royalists, sheltered on the castle height, a mad shower of fire. [405] "Statimque propter omnes misit quos regi fauturos sciebat. Venerunt ergo fere omnes comites Angliæ; erant enim juvenes et leves, et qui mallent equitationum discursus quam pacem" (_Will. Malms._, p. 751). Cf. _Hen. Hunt._, p. 275, and _Gesta_, pp. 81, 82.