But now a new actor appears. Lewis, after a long delay, arrived in England in May, and at once gave spirit and consistency to his party. John retired before him and took up a position at Winchester. Lewis marched by Canterbury to London, and there received the homage and fealties of his friends. In spite of the sentence of excommunication actually passed upon him and his adherents by the new legate, Gualo, he then marched on Winchester, John retiring still; took Winchester, and besieged Windsor and Dover. The Northern lords joined him first, then the great earls, even the Earl of Salisbury himself. John was desperate; he roved up and down the country at the head of his banditti, burning and plundering and slaying; whilst Lewis was gathering strength and friends every hour. At last, on October 19, death overtook the king at Newark. From that very day the strength of Lewis, which was based on the popular and baronial hatred of John, began to decline. It melted away as quickly as it had grown, and in less than a year he was obliged to make peace and leave England alone. John ended thus a life of ignominy in which he has no rival in the whole long list of our sovereigns. There is no need to attempt an elaborate analysis of his character. History has set upon it a darker and deeper mark than she has on any other king. He was in every way the worst of the whole list: the most vicious, the most profane, the most tyrannical, the most false, the most short-sighted, the most unscrupulous. There was an old legendary prophecy, spoken in a dream by an angel to Fulk the Good, Count of Anjou, when he had in an ecstasy of fervent charity carried on his shoulders a leprous beggar for two leagues to the church of Marmoutier. He was told that to the ninth generation his successors should extend the bounds of their dominion until it was immensely great. The prophecy had been fulfilled--to Anjou had been added Maine and Normandy, Aquitaine and England; Palestine too was ruled by his descendants; and at last, in the person of Otho IV., the seed of the good count had reached the summit of earthly ambition. But the time fixed by the legend was come. John was the representative, of the last generation, with which the blessing ended, and the inheritance of Fulk the Good, passed into other hands. CHAPTER VIII. HENRY III. Character of Henry--Administration of William Marshall--Hubert de Bergh--Henry his own minister--Foreign favorites--General misgovernment--Papal intrigue and taxation.