When the King perceived the said earl, he caused him to rise, and asked him, "What news?" Then said the earl, "My dear sire, I am sent to you by your cousin Henry of Lancaster." The King asked him if he had not met his brother, whom he had sent there. "Yes, dear sire; and here is a letter he gave me [for you]." The King took the letter and looked at the seal, and saw that it was the seal of his brother; then he opened the letter and read it. All that it contained was this: "My very dear lord; I commend me to you. I hope you will believe the earl in everything that he shall say to you. For I found the Duke of Lancaster at my city of Chester, who has a great desire to have a good peace and agreement with you; and has kept me to attend upon him till he shall know your pleasure." When the King had read the letter, he said to the Earl of Northumberland: "Now then, Northumberland, what is your message?" "My dear sire," said the earl, "my lord of Lancaster has sent me to you to tell you what he most wishes for in this world is to have peace and a good understanding with you, and greatly repents, with all his heart, of the displeasure he hath caused you now and at other times, and asks nothing of you in this living world, save that you would consider him as your cousin and friend, and that you would please only to let him have his land, and that he may be Seneschal of England as his father and his predecessors have been, and that all other things of bygone time may be put in oblivion between you two: for which purpose he hath chosen umpires for yourself and for him; that is to say, your brother, the Bishop of Carlisle, the Earl of Salisbury, Maudelyn, and the Earl of Westmorland; and charges these five with [the arrangement of] the differences that are between you and him. Give me, if you please, an answer."