died in Ireland. Besides these, there died, Gilbert Basset, a knight of noble birth, and of great fame in arms, John Basset, the prime forester in England, Robert Mansion, Peter de Bruis, and Guiscard Leydet. There also died, either while tarrying in the Holy Land, as pilgrims, or in going thither, or returning from thence, Eudes, the brother of count Richard, Ramo, surnamed Peceham, Baldwin de Betun, John Fitzjohn, the seneschal of the aforesaid count, John de Beauchamp, a most accomplished knight, Gerard de Fumival, and many others, whose names are indelibly recorded in the book of life as faithful soldiers of God, and worshippers of his footsteps. The same year, Isabella, empress of the Romans, and sister of the king of England, the hope and singular glory of the English, died in childbirth, on the first of December. And when the emperor had announced this event in a mournful letter to the lord the king of England, at the end of the letter he tempered his grief, as it were, speaking thus : " There remains to me, by the bounty of the Almighty, a royal offspring, so that there arise a king and queen, in the sight óf their father, to be the witnesses of their mother." For the emperor had had by his wife a happy offspring, to wit, a son and a daughter. That year was one of pestilence and disturbance to the kingdom of England, and of great disaster to the Holy Land, because the Templars attacked the Hospitallers in a hostile manner, and could not be reconciled to them by all the diligence and exertions of count Richard; moreover, to the church of Rome it was so unfavourable and injurious, that after the pope had died and another been elected in his stead, who also was taken from this world after a few days, all the brethren becoming divided in their persons, and hearts, and places, attacked one another. Peter of Savoy, earl of Richmond, resigns the nolle castles, which he had received from the king, to the custody of the king. A.D . 1242, which is the twenty-sixth year of the reign of King Henry the Third. The said king held his court at Christmas, at Westminster, in his great palace, as he was accustomed to, in great tranquillity ; and when he had remained there a fortnight, the news of the arrival of earl Richard, who was returning from the Holy Land, got abroad. And when