of Bigorre, a prisoner in the city gaol ; -whom the citizens delivered into his hands : on which the count of Bigorre gave to the earl of Poitou, for his ransom, Claremont, and the castle of Montbrun. iÇer this, he took Gengay, Martillan, Grunville, Agenville, Tailleburg, and Pons, and levelled all these castles with the ground. Buger, count of Angoulême, also surrendered to him the city of Angoulême, and the castle of Montignuc, on which he destroyed their fortifications. In the year of grace 1179, being the twenty-fifth year of the reign of king Henry, son of the empress Matilda, the said Henry was iu England, at Winchester, on the day of the Nativity of our Lord. During the period of this festival, at Oxenhale, in the lordship of Darlington, in England, the earth raised itself up on high, in appearance like a lofty tower, and so remained, without moving, from the ninth hour of the day until the evening, and then fell down with such a dreadful crash, that it alarmed all the neighbourhood, and the earth swallowed it up, and made there a very deep pit, which remains there as a testimony of the circumstance even to the present day. After the Nativity of our Lord, there came to England, from Ireland, Lauronce, archbishop of Dublin, Catholicus, archbishop of Tuam, and five or six bishops, who were about to proceed to the council at Bome. In the same manner, there passed through England from the kingdom of Scotland a considerable number of bishops and abbats. All these, both those from Ireland as well as Scotland and the other islands, on passing through England, in order to obtain leave to pass, made oath that they would not seek any detriment to the king or to his kingdom. Prom England, however, there went but four bishops to Bome, namely, Hugh, bishop of Durham, John, bishop of Norwich, Robert, bishop of Hereford, and Reginald, bishop of Bath, with a considerable number of abbats : for the bishops of England stoutly asserted that only four bishops of England ought to be sent to Rome to a general council of our lord the pope. AU being accordingly assembled, at Rome, in the presence of our lord the pope Alexander, the pope taking his seat in the church of the Lateran, on an elevated place, together with his cardinals, chief men, and senators, and the magistrates of the city, commenced holding his council, which began on the second