The last point concerns the "most interesting and valuable"[785] letter from Gilbert Foliot to Brian fitz Count. A careful perusal of this composition has led me to believe, from internal evidence, that it refers not (as Miss Norgate puts it) to a "book" by Brian fitz Count, or "a defence of his Lady's rights in the shape of a little treatise,"[786] but to a justification of his own conduct in reply to hostile criticism. And I venture to think that so far from this composition being "unhappily lost,"[787] it may be, and probably is, no other than that lengthy epistle from Brian to the Bishop of Winchester, of which a copy was entered in Richard de Bury's _Liber Epistolaris_. And there, happily, it is still preserved.[788] This can only be decided when the contents of that epistle are made accessible to the public, as they should have been before now. * * * * * To resume. I have now established these facts. The "trial" at Rome took place, not, as Mr. Freeman assumes, in 1152, nor, as Miss Norgate argues, in 1148, but early in 1136. The letter of Gilbert Foliot, in which he refers to it, was written, not in 1148, but late in 1143 or early in 1144. The whole of Miss Norgate's sequence of events (i. 369, 370) breaks down entirely. The great debate before the pope at Rome was not the result of Stephen's attempt to get Eustace crowned, nor of Geoffrey's challenge to Stephen by the mouth of Bishop Miles, but of the charge brought against Stephen at the very outset of his reign. The true story of this debate and of Stephen's "confirmation," by the pope, as king is here set forth for the first time, and throws on the whole chain of events a light entirely new. [748] Pertz's _Monumenta Historica_, vol. xx. [749] "The application to Rome and the debate which followed it there are to be found in the _Historia Pontificalis_, 41 (Pertz, xx. 543). Bishop (_sic_) Henry 'promisit se daturum operam et diligentiam ut apostolicus Eustachium filium regis coronaret. Quod utique fieri non licebat, nisi Romani pontificis veniâ impetratâ.' I have already (see above, p. 251) had to refer to some of the points urged in this debate" (_Norm. Conq._, v. 325, note). On turning to "p. 251," we similarly find the debate spoken of as belonging to "later years," and at p. 354 also, while at p. 857 we read: "At a later time, in the argument before Pope Innocent (_sic_), when Stephen is trying to get the pontiff's consent to the coronation of his son Eustace (p. 325)," etc., etc. How an argument could be held before Innocent, many years after his death, Mr. Freeman does not explain. [750] _England under the Angevin Kings_, i. 278, _note_. [751] _England under the Angevin Kings_, i. 370, _note_. [752] _Ibid._, i. 370, 371, 495, 496. [753] _Academy_, November 12, 1887. [754] "Sed jam nunc Deo propitio et favente parti huic domino papa Celestino."