the two chief prelates in England, everything would be regu lated by their will, and one would be supported by the assist ance of the other. About the same time, a certain portion of the barons who had remained in London, issued forth with a body of cavalry, and laid waste the province of Cambridge, and, without any difficulty, reduced the fortress under their power, and took prisoners twenty-five esquires, whom they found in it, and whom they bound with chains, and carried off with them to London. From thence they traversed the adjacent counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, plundered the farmers and the citizens sof the cities, scarcely sparing the churches, and making themselves masters of everything. They also compelled the towns of Yarmouth, Wich, and Ipswich, and the neighbouring districts, to pay à very heavy ransom. And then returning through Colchester, they raged against the inhabitants of that district with similar fury. The same force also besieged and took the castles of Hertford and Berkhampstead, and forcibly seized many others which lay in their way. About the same time, in consequence of the exertions of his friends, and even of some foreigners who feared that they might be imprisoned in a similar manner, that noble man, William de Albiney, was released from prison, having first been compelled to pay a fine for his redemption of six thousand marks, which were to be paid within a short time. In the carrying out of which business, his wife, Agatha, labouring beyond what could have been expected of the female sex, raised the money demanded, though with great difficulty ; and so, in a most praiseworthy manner, effected the release of her husband. The barons remain inactive in London. Louis, son of the king of France, hnds. A.D . 1216. Which is the eighteenth year of king John's reign, the same king John was, on the day of the Nativity of our Lord, at Nottingham Castle. But, on the morrow, he sent messengers to Belvoir Castle, requiring that it should be immediately surrendered to him ; and threatening that, if any delay took place, William de Albiney, to whom the castle be longed, and who was detained in the king's prison, should never dine again, but should be put to death by famine. And when this was known, immediately the governors of the castle, going to meet him, gave up the keys of the castle to him, sti