made to them hy hie messenger, agreed to his proposals, considering that it was a hard thing for a prince of the kingdom to leave his kingdom and expose himself to such toilsome and dangerous journeys. At last, they sent formal ambassadors to the king of England and his council, namely,Stephen, earl of Buchan, Master William, the chancellor, duke Alan, the king-at-arms, who conveyed the answers to the king nnd queen and nobles of Scotland into England, with a writing, sealed with the seals of the aforesaid nobles, which the before-mentioned William de Horton had brought with him ; and then, having finished their business, they soon after returned. The same year, when the beginning of March was at hand, Walter de Scotenay, the principal counsellor and seneschal of the earl of Gloucester, was arrested in London, on suspicion of having given poison to the said earl and his brother William ; by which poison the earl was made ill, and was with difficulty brought back from the gates of death, and his brotherWilliam died. So also they arrested William de Bassey, seneschal and principal counsellor of William de Valence. They had been for some time under the safe custody of their securities, but now they were arrested and brought before the judges, and committed to a lower prison, and put in fetters ; for one was convicted of poisoning, and the other of frequent acts of injury and injustice. About this time died Thomas, formerly count of Flanders, who had obtained no small number of thousands of marks from the simplicity of the king and queen ; and he had lately, without any reason, injured thechurch of Saint Alban* β, impudently sowing discord between it and the king. About the first of April, by the command of the king, and the advice of the whole body of barons, the earl of Gloucester, the earl of Leicester, the lord John Mansel, Peter de Savoy, and Robert Vallerant, knights, set out on a journey beyond the sea to the great parliament of the lord the king of France, on account of many important affairs relating to the kingdoms of France and England, having full powers to arrange and establish a lasting peace between the two nations, if the said king of France would turn his attention to observing inviolably the former agreements which had been entered into between his special ambassadors and the king of England. About the same time, having received a convent with a mansion attached to it, a chapter of Preaching Brothers began to ( j