white marble, which ever since the time of Christ had borne the print of a footstep oi the Saviour in the Holy Land ; and the inhabitants of the Holy Land assert, that that impression was the print of the footstep of Christ when he was ascending into heaven. And the aforesaid lord the king gave it as a noble present to the church of Westminster, as he had a little while before given it the blood of Christ. But on the first Sunday of the Advent of the Lord, Walter of Kirkham, bishop elect of Durham, was consecrated at York, by Walter, archbishop of York, of which archbishop the bishop of Durham is a suffragan. The same year, the abbot of Boileau caused his church, which king John had built from its foundations, to be dedicated with great solemnity, in the presence of king Henry, and Richard, his brother, and many other nobles and prelates. Moreover, the aforesaid abbot sent twenty picked monks and thirty brethren to inhabit the new house of the Cistercian order which earl Richard had lately built not far from Winchelcombe, in fulfilment of a vow which he had made when at sea. In the course of the same year, on the third of July, Alexander, king of Scotland, died, a wise and moderate man ; for when he was seeking for an occasion of showing his severity, he voluntarily sharpened his wrath against one of the greatest nobles of his kingdom, by name Owen de Argathel, a valiant and most accomplished knight. And, preparing to strip him of his property, he branded him with the stigma of treason, because, in the year which had just elapsed, he had done homage to the king of Norway, for his occupation of a certain island which the father of the aforesaid Owen had held in peace under the same king, doing him homage for it for many years. Owen, therefore, being unwilling to offend the king of Scotland, entreated him to grant him a truce, that he might resign the homage and the island at the same time to the king of Norway ; but the king refnsed to do so, and defied Owen himself, and pursued him by sea as far as Argathel, being stimulated, as it is said, by the importunate promptings of a certain bishop of Stratherne, a brother of the order of Preachers ; and accordingly, the king disembarking from his ship, before he was able to mount a horse, was, as if by divine vengeance, struck by a sudden and mortal disease, and while wishing to strip an innocent man of his inheritance, unexpectedly gave up his soul while among his nobles, and all his