[598] Stubbs, _Const. Hist._, i. 362, _note_. [599] _Official Baronage_, i. 291. [600] _Mon. Ang._, v. 440; _Journ. B. A. A._, xxxi. 392. This conclusion reveals a further error in the _Histoire de Guillaume le Maréchal_, which gives a very incomprehensible account of this Patrick's action. [601] See Appendix U. [602] "Regnum, ut in ore jam vulgi celebre fuerat, comitissæ Andegavensi conferre disposuerat" (_Gesta Stephani_, p. 101). This very remarkable incidental allusion should be compared with that in which Henry of Huntingdon justifies the earl's arrest by Stephen: "Nisi enim hoc egisset, perfidio consulis illius regno privatus fuisset" (p. 276). [603] "Duravit improspera valetudo usque post Pentecostem (June 7); tum enim sensim refusus salutis vigor eum in pedes erexit" (_Will. Malms._, p. 763). [604] "Rex ... comitis absentiam aucupatus, subito ad Waram veniens, et non bene munitum propugnatoribus offendens, succensa et depredata villa, statim etiam castello potitus est" (_ibid._, p. 766). [605] "Obsides poposcit sigillatim ab his qui optimates videbantur, secum in Normannia ducendos, vadesque futuros tam comiti Andegavensi quam imperatrici quod omnes, junctis umbonibus ab ea, dum ipse abesset, injurias propulsarent, viribus suis apud Oxeneford manentes" (_Will. Malms._, p. 764). The phrase "junctis umbonibus" revives memories of the shield-wall. See also Appendix S. [606] "Civitatem ... ita comes Gloecestrie fossatis munierat, ut inexpugnabilis præter per incendium videretur" (_ibid._, p. 766). [607] _Gesta_, pp. 87, 88. [608] _Gesta_, p. 88. [609] "Tribus diebus ante festum Sancti Michaelis" (_Will. Malms._, p. 766). [610] See the brilliant description of this action in the _Gesta Stephani_, pp. 88, 89. [611] "Mox igitur optimates quidem omnes imperatricis, confusi quia a domina sua præter statutum abfuerant, confertis cuneis ad Walengeford convenerunt," etc. (_Will. Malms._, p. 766). [612] Dr. Stubbs has erroneously placed his landing in 1141 instead of in the autumn of 1142. See Appendix Y, on "The First and Second Visits of Henry II. to England." [613] _Will. Malms._, pp. 767, 768. [614] See, for the story of her romantic escape, the _Gesta Stephani_ (pp. 89, 90), _William of Malmesbury_ (pp. 768, 769), _John of Hexham_ (_Sym. Dun._, ii. 317), _William of Newburgh_ (i. 43), and the _Anglo-Saxon Chronicle_ (p. 384). This last is of special value for its mention of her escape from the tower of the castle. It states that Stephen "besæt hire in the tur," and that she was on the night of her escape let down by ropes from the tower ("me læt hire dun on niht of the tur mid rapes"). It is difficult to see how this can mean anything else than that she was lowered to the ground from the existing tower, instead of leaving by a gate.