gust, to which they caused the king to be invited, who sent earl Alberic de Vere, a man of great experience in many kinds of causes, to the council, to allege, with respect to the taking of the said bishops, which was the matter about which he was attacked, that he could do as he did by right, and to defend the conduct of the king. On the thirtieth of August, the council was dissolved. The same year, Roger, bishop of Salisbury, died. % King Stephen also persecuted Nigel, bishop of Ely. • Alberto, earl de Vere, is put to death in the city of London. A.D. 1140. On the fifteenth of May, Alberic de Vere was put to death in London. Aldwin, founder of the abbey of Malvern, died. Stephen, king of England, laid siege to the city of Lincoln, about the time of the Nativity, the strongholds of which had been entrusted to Ranulph, earl of Chester, a little before; and he prevented king Stephen from entering the city till the day of the Purification of the blessed Virgin Mary ; and a terrible battle was fought with the king before the city ; and, at last, it was taken by many stratagems, on the second of February. During Lent, on the twentieth of Mardi, a terrible eclipse took place throughout all England, so that it was said to be a sign. The week after, on the twentysixth of April, Radulph, the son of Hubert, a savage and barbarous man, and one fond of all the stratagems of war, took the castle of Devizes, by surprise, and did not fear to boast that, by means of that castle, he would make himself master of the whole district from Winchester to London ; and that he would send for soldiers from Flanders to be his own guard. But soon afterwards, he was taken prisoner by John, a man of exceeding cunning, who was dwelling in the castle of Marlborough, and was put in chains, because he refused to surrender the castle of Devizes to his mistress, the empress ; and he was hanged like a thief. The same year, at Pentecost, a conference was brought about between the empress and the king, with the object of restoring peace. But when they came to the place appointed, which was near Bath, the plenipotentiaries who were*on the part of the empress, her brother, count Robert, and on the part of the king, the pope's legate, and the archbishop, they, after a long debate, effected nothing. The city of London is surrendered to the empress. A.D. 1141. In this year, king Stephen was taken prisoner,