who rules the wind and the sea, not by our own merit, we obtained a victory and triumph over the whole multitude of so many enemies. This being accomplished we set out thence with a powerful army for the recovery of our rights, and marked out a fort near the strong city of Tournay, in the siege of which we were perpetually occupied for some time, and, wearied out by continual expenses and labours, awaiting in silence, we were hoping day by day for the promised help; to be relieved, by the service of our Archbishop, from so many and so great necessities. At length, the conceived hope being frustrated, although by many messengers and many letters we fully signified to the aforesaid Archbishop, and to others of our Council who adhered to him, not only our poverty and the many perils to which we were exposed on account of the failure of the said subsidy, but also the advantage and the honour which, by the help of the money, we saw we could easily secure. Nevertheless we could not obtain emolument from them, because, caring for their own affairs rather than ours, and procuring their own welfare, they excused their sluggishness, (not to say their fraud, or their malice), by frivolous excuses and ornate rhetoric, like those mockers who, as says Isaiah, delight in deriding, saying: "Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little." [Isaiah xxviii. 13.] Whence alas, it came about that even when the near hope of triumphing over our enemies gracefully smiled upon us, poverty prevailing, we were obliged, unwilling though we were, to make truce, to the shameful retarding of our expedition, and the no little exultation of our rivals.... Wherefore we, directing the force of our mind to the discipline and correction of such of our officials, caused certain of them whom we held suspect, for probable causes, of bad administration, of the subversion of justice, of the oppression of our subjects, of corruption by acceptance of gifts and other grave offences, to be removed from their offices as it seems well to us; while others of inferior rank were placed in custody.... We ordered him [the Archbishop], through our faithful servant Nicholas de Cantilupe, specially chosen for this purpose, to hasten and come to London early to our presence, since we desired to have a personal interview with him. But he, always haughty in prosperity and cowardly in adversity, fearing where no fear was, alleged untruly that the peril of death, threatened and directed against him by our partisans, hung over him if he should leave the Church of Canterbury, although this, by witness of God and a pure conscience, never had come into our mind, or, we believe, into that of any of our partisans, in spite of the fact that by his demerits he had made himself hated by the clergy and people of the kingdom. But we, desiring all to come to our presence, and that all summoned to us by our letters should enjoy full security, sent our