and “greatly abused them when they had them fast in the crowd”; and nothing to indicate that this meeting, described by the poet as having taken place _dans la presse_, occurred as Mr. Tout says it did, in “the open country”; nothing to connect these four lines with anybody or anything previously mentioned in the poem. In connexion with this point it will be well to consider an apparent difficulty in ll. 16541–5: “Li avesques al Mar. dist: ‘Par mon chief! cist ont mal fait, Car c’est la verite provee Qu’il n’ont pas unquore trovee La dreite entree’” etc. (see above, p. 39). In the poem as we now have it this passage immediately follows the one about Falkes; _cist_ in l. 16542, therefore, would seem to refer to Falkes and his men. As, however, any thing that happened to Falkes and his men must have happened inside either the castle or the city, it could not become known to those who were still outside the western wall so speedily as this interpretation would imply; and I venture to think we may find a probable explanation of the difficulty, without supposing the poet to have been either so confused about the topography, or so careless, as to overlook this obvious fact. The obscurity and seeming incompleteness of the passage relating to Falkes, and the abruptness of the transition in ll. 16540–41, strongly suggest a _lacuna_ in the MS. at this point. If there be one, it is probable that the missing lines contained some further account of Falkes’s mishap; it is possible that they may have also contained an account of some other transaction, the actors in which were the subjects of Peter’s comment recorded in ll. 16541–5; and it is further possible that that transaction may have been the attack on the North Gate recorded by Roger of Wendover. NOTE IV THE END OF THE BATTLE OF LINCOLN Of the closing scene of the battle of Lincoln there are two accounts; one by the Biographer of the Marshal, the other by Roger of Wendover. (1) The Biographer, after describing the fight on the bridge, the accident which there befell William Bloet, and the capture of the two De Quincys and others, continues thus:-- “E li sorplus torna en fine Tote la rue contreval Qui s’en veit dreit a l’hospital. Molt lor sembla la veie forte Dusqu’ a la dererene porte; La lor avint une aventure Qui mult lor fu pesante e dure, C’une vache entra en la porte, En cele qui le fleel porte, E la porte se clost aval Issi que nuls homme a cheval N’i passast en nule maniere. Lors ne porent avant n’ariere; Mes cil qui angoissos en erent De issir s’en la vache acorerent.” _Hist. G. le Mar._, ll. 16940–54.