Conqueror ;" and summoning a council of Ins nobles, be, for a third time, made them swear fealty to thu absent empress,* and acknowledge the infant as his successor to the throne, in the event of his death. Immediately after the celebration of this inauspicious marriage. King Henry returned to England, and spent the Christmas with Adelicia ; but, with the coming spring, he was compelled again to hasten to Normandy, to repel his continental foes. William Clito had succeeded to the earldom of Flanders, which so increased his wealth and power, that he once more endeavoured to possess himself of what was so justly his—the crown of Normandy—and but for an accident winch unexpectedly terminated his existence, success would doubtless have been his ; whilst disarming a mutinous soldier, the lance pierced his thumb, gangrene ensued, and, five days after, he died in the monastery of St. Bertin, on the twenty-seventh of July, 1128. On the death of William Clito, Henry made peace with his foes, and returned to Kngland, where nothing had transpired to mar the domestic happiness of Adelicia, or disturb the peace and prosperity of the nation. Henrys last visit to Normandy was made in 1133, and immediately after his embarkation, the sun was obscured by a total eclipse, and the stars shone out at mid-day ; whilst there presently followed a great earthquake, accompanied by hurricanes at sea, and by volcanic eruptions on land, which darkened the daylight, filled the air with blood-red flames and sulphureous fumes, and so astounded and terrified men, that they feared for their very lives, and cried, "Woe! woe! to King Henry! for we shall never more see his face." Singular as it may appear, this direful prognostic was ultimately verified, as although the royal craft braved the tempest, and the kiug reached Normandy in safety, he remained there till his death, which, by all accounts, was occasioned by eating too unsparingly of his favour * The, second time was in 1131, when Matilda, having left her hiiHbiind in disgust, sought refugo with lier sire, King Henry, in Kngland, ite dish, stewed lampreys. This indiscretion was followed by indigestion, which terminating in a violent fever, he, after a severe illness of seven days, died, on the night of the first of December, 113-5, at the castle of Lyons, near liouen, in the sixtv-eighth year of his age, and the thirty-sixth of his reign. On the day before he expired, Henry sent for the Archbishop of liouen, and the Earls of Gloucester, Surrey, and Leicester, and delivered to them his last will. After desiring the payment in full of his debts, and the wages of his servants, and the remittance of all arrears due to him, he bequeathed his dominions to the empress, his daughter ; and excluding her spouse, Geoffrey, to whom he expressed bitter bate, from any participation in his bequests, he named his beloved natural son, Kohert, Earl of Gloucester, protector of her rights, a trust which the honest-hearted carl discharged with earnest fidelity. The body of the departed monarch was conveyed from the castle of Lyons to Ilourn, with solemn ceremony, and then embalmed after the rude fashion of the age. Gervase of Canterbury say&, it was sliced with knives, powdered with salt, and afterwards wrapped in a tanned ox hide, to avoid the stench, which was so infectious, that one of the operators died presently afterwards, l-'rom liouen the body was conveyed to England, where, according; to Henry's express desire, it was buried with gorgeous rites, on Christmas Day, in the stately abbey of Heading, which he himself had built, and richly endowed. Whether Adelicia was with her aged lord when ho expired, or whether she graced his obsequies by her presence, history saith not. It, however, may be presumed, that she was much grieved at his death, as it is recorded, that as a testimony of the affection she cherished fur his memory, she made donations to the abbey of Heading of the manor of Eaton, in Hertfordshire, and the manor of Stanton Ilareourt, in Oxfordshire, besides several churches, for solemn services to be said for the repose of his soul, and that subsequently she gave an annuity in perpetuity of one hundred shillings to