The Bridge at Rochester, over which that unfortunate horse was blown, was at this time a crazy structure of wood, and so dangerous that most folks preferred crossing the Medway by boat. One unfortunate minstrel was blown into the water just as he reached the middle, and he went floating down the stream harping the praises of Our Lady upon his harp, and calling out for her help at the same time _in English_, as the chronicler remarks--and this was his English:-- Help usvyf, help usvyf, Oiyer me--I forga mi lyf. By "usvyf" he meant "wife." "Help us, wife," which strikes us as being extremely familiar. The Holy Mother, notwithstanding this horrid jargon, was pleased to save him, and this pious "Harpur a Roucestre" landed about a league below the city, making his way forthwith to a church to offer up thanks, and followed by an immense crowd who had been watching the proceedings without attempting to save him, which is ever the way of crowds. [Illustration: ROCHESTER CASTLE AND THE MEDWAY.] Fourteen years later, the Queen of Robert Bruce was a State prisoner in Rochester Castle, with her sister and daughter, and here they remained until Bannockburn altered the complexion of affairs. King John of France, too, appears here, and in a grateful mood, for he was going back to his kingdom, and so, to please the saints, made an offering of forty crowns (valued at L6 13_s._ 4_d._) at the Cathedral, departing for "Stiborne," and resting the night at Ospringe. Sigismund, Emperor of Germany, passed through "Rotschetter" in 1416, with a retinue of a thousand knights, on a visit to Henry the Fifth, and Henry the Seventh was here in 1492, 1494, and 1498, crossing over from Strood in a ferry-boat for which he paid L2, an expense which would have been quite unnecessary had the authorities kept the Bridge (then of stone, and about a century old) in decent repair. A few months later than his last visit, the King sent the Mayor of the town L5 toward its restoration, for funds were low, and the indulgences--to say nothing of the forty days' remittances from Purgatory for all manner of sins--offered by Archbishop Morton to any one who would give towards the work, were but little in request. Charles the Fifth, Emperor of Germany, was the next considerable personage here, and of how great a consideration he was may be gathered from the fact that he came up the road from Dover with a train of two thousand attendants. He and Henry the Eighth, who had gone down to Dover to meet him, stayed at Rochester on the night of Sunday, June 1, 1522, and went on to Gravesend the following day. Eighteen years later, the King, already a much-married man, came here to have a private view of his new matrimonial venture. [Sidenote: HENRY MEETS ANNE]