A.D. 1093. ATTEMPI OS KING WILLIAM'S LIFE. 183 called Cricklade, and ordered him to make haste to Worcester, to bury him. The ring, also, with which he had received the pontifical benediction, God would allow no one to draw from off his finger, lest, after his death, the holy man should appear to have deceived his friends, to whom he had frequently foretold that he would not part with it, either in his lifetime or at the day of his burial. On the day before the nones of April, it seemed at night as though stars were falling from heaven. Walter, bishop of Albano, legate from the Holy Church of Home, being sent by pope Urban, eame to England before Easter, to bring the pall to king William, for which he had sent the year before ; which, according to order, was, on the Lord's day, being the fourth day before the ides of June, taken by him to Canterbury, and laid upon the altar of our Saviour, and then assumed by Anselm, and suppliantly kissed by all, as a mark of reverence to Saint Peter. On the sixth day before the calends of July, being the third day of the week, Robert, bishop of Hereford, a man of extreme piety, departed this Rfe. The above-named Wulstan, bishop of Worcester, appeared to him in a vision, on the thirty-second day after he had departed from this world, and sharply rebuked him for his negligence and heedlessness, admonishing him to use his best endeavours to amend both his own Rfe and those of his flock, with the utmost vigilanee : if he did this, he affirmed that he would soon obtain pardon of God for all his sins, and added, that he would not long retain his seat in the chair in whieh he then sat, but that, if he should choose to be more vigilant, he would be enabled to rejoice with himseR in the presence of God. Por both of these fathers had been most zealous in their love of God, and most attached to each other ; • therefore we have reason to believe that he who was the first to take his departure from this world unto God, felt an anxiety for his most beloved friend, whom he had left in this world, and used his best endeavours that he might, as soon as possible, together with himself, rejoice in the presence of God. At this period, Robert de Mowbray, earl of Northumbria, and William de Eu, with many others, attempted to deprive king William of his kingdom and life, and to make Stephen de Albemarle, his aunt's son, king, but were disappointed. Por, on learning this, tho king levied an army