[429] "Cum nec ibi secure se tutari posse, ob insequentes, formidaret, jam pene exanimis feretro invecta, et funibus quasi cadaver ligata, equis deferentibus, sat ignominiose ad civitatem deportatur Glaornensem" (_Cont. Flor. Wig._, 134). The author of the _Gesta_ (p. 85) mentions her flight to Devizes ("Brieno tantum cum paucis comite, ad Divisas confugit"), and incidentally observes (p. 87) that she was "ex Wintoniensi dispersione quassa nimis, et usque ad defectum pené defatigata" (_i.e._ "tired to death;" cf. _supra_). John of Hexham merely says: "Et imperatrix quidem non sine magno conflictu et plurima difficultate erepta est" (_Sym. Dun._, ii. 310). [430] Camden, in his _Britannia_, gives the story, but Knighton (De eventibus Angliæ, lib. ii., in _Scriptores_ X.) seems to be the chief offender. Dugdale follows with the assertion that "she was necessitated ... for her more security to be put into a coffin, as a dead corps, to escape their hands" (i. 537 _b_). According to Milner (_History of Winchester_, p. 162), "she was enclosed like a corpse in a sheet of lead, and was thus suffered to pass in a horse-litter as if carried out for interment, through the army of her besiegers, a truce having been granted for this purpose." Even Edwards, in his introduction to the _Liber de Hyda_ (p. xlviii.), speaks of "the raising of the siege; a raising precipitated, if we accept the accounts of Knighton and some other chroniclers who accord with him, by the strange escape of the Empress Maud from Winchester Castle concealed in a leaden coffin." _Sic crescit eundo._ [431] _Will. Malms._, p. 754. [432] See donation of Miles (_Monasticon_, vi. 137), stated to have been made in their presence, and in the year 1141, in which he speaks of himself as "apud Bristolium positus, jamque consulatus honorem adeptus." Brian had escorted the Empress in her flight, but Miles, intercepted by the enemy, had barely escaped with his life ("de solâ vita lætus ad Glaornam cum dedecore fugiendo pervenit lassus, solus, et pene nudus."—_Cont. Flor. Wig._, p. 135). CHAPTER VII. THE SECOND CHARTER OF THE KING. The liberation of the king from his captivity was hailed with joy by his adherents, and not least, we may be sure, in his loyal city of London. The greatness of the event is seen, perhaps, in the fact that it is even mentioned in a private London deed of the time, executed "Anno MCXLI., Id est in exitu regis Stephani de captione Roberti filii regis Henrici."[432b] In spite of his faults we may fairly assume that the king's imprisonment had aroused a popular reaction in his favour, as it did in the case of Charles I., five centuries later. The experiences also of the summer had been greatly in his favour. For, however unfit he may have been to fill the throne himself, he was able now to point to the fact that his rival had been tried and found wanting.