agents of the plot, and so he escaped. Nevertheless, the king, still retaining treachery in his heart, pretended to be glad that it was well with the count. Conrad succeeds Lothaire as emperor. A.D . 1138. Conrad succeeded Lothaire in the empire. Theobald was elected to the diocese of Canterbury, in the presence of Alberic, the legate. This year, count Robert,1 by ambassadors, as Stephen was in England, renounced all allegiance to the king, and he did this on many accounts, because the king did not keep towards him the oath which he had taken, nor to his sister. And when he did this, the king deprived him of all his possessions in England. The same year, Stephen, king of England, on the very day of the Nativity, besieged the castle of Bedford, saying that he would not grant the enemy peace for a single hour, till the castle was surrendered. The king of Scotland led an army into Northumberland, and with his men committed detestable atrocities. For, in revenge for the empress, to whom that same king had sworn fidelity, they cut open women with child, tore out the untimely offspring, tossed little children on the points of their lances, and slaughtered priests on the altars. Therefore, the king of England hastened thither, but before he arrived, the king of Scotland had retreated to his own country. A Council is held at Pisa under pope Innocent. A.D . 1139. The empress Matilda came into England, and with her, Robert, earl of Gloucester, her brother, with a powerful army, on the festival of Saint Michael. Henry, bishop of Winchester, the brother of king Stephen, at that time the legate of the Apostolic See, being indignant at the unworthy treatment which prelates and their possessions received at the hand of the king, grieved, and devised a remedy. At that time, a council was being held at Pisa, by pope Innocent. King Stephen, in his care to arm himself against the royal dignity, compelled many of his prisoners to surrender their castles,; and, among them, he compelled, by force, Roger, bishop of Salisbury, to surrender his castles of Sherborne, and of Devizes, and of Malmesbury. Therefore, by the management of archbishop Theobald, and Henry, bishop of Winchester, the brother of the king, and other bishops and prelates, a council was held at Winchester, on the twenty-ninth of Au 1 1 suppose this to be the person called Brian Fitz Count by Hume.