borge, conld render liim no assistance, but Don Pedro King of Arragon, entered warmly into the contest and fell brave-ly fighting in the battle of Muret. The count was at last compelled to conclude an ignomi-nious peace with the pope; and thus the forces of the church were victorious in the south of France, as they were in the Greek Empire. To return to Isabella. The troubles with which King John had involved himself by the murder of the young Duke of Bretagne, seemed destined never to end. All Aquitaine had been in a state of revolt since the decease of his mother and the captivity of Count Hugh, and his queen finally persuaded him to trust to the magnaminity of her lover, for the peace of his dominions in France. De Lusignan left England in 1206, and by his discretion and valor, soon restored the revolted provinces to the sway of the line of Plantagenet. The intolerance of the king next aroused the animosity of the English barons, and to prevent a popular outbreak, he demanded their sons as hostages, under the plausible pretext of requiring the ser-vices of the youthfnl lords as pages for his queen, and com-panions of his infant son, Henry. The Lady de Braose, when her children were demanded, imprudently replied, " I will not surrender my boys to a king who murdered his own nephew." The unfortunate words were repeated to the malicious monarch, and meas-ures for vengeance immediately instituted. The Lord de Braose, with his wife and five innocent little ones, were confined in AVindsor castle and starved to death. "While the husband of Isabella was thus alienating from himself the affections of his subjects, he had the temerity to dare the colossal power of Borne. A dispute arose as in the days of his father, concerning the incumbent of the see of Canterbury. The pope had commanded the monks to choose Cardinal Langton for their primate, without the ceremony of a writ from the king. They complied, and ISABELLA. 293