366 * MATTHEW 0 Γ WESTMIKSTEB. A.D . 1259. lastingly to be bewailed by the men of the religious orders. In the church of Saint Denis, the apostle of the French, there was a certain new erection, raised up on high, supported by a great many beams joined and fastened together. And when, one day, several men of the convent, with several also of the secular clergy, were walking under it, examining what had been done, lo ! a great and fearful clap of thunder came, which violently shook the scaffolding of beams, and loosening the fastenings, entirely threw it down, and dashed to the ground and slew a great many both of the monks and secular clergy. And it is affirmed, in the relation of many who visited the spot, that all the monks of that monastery except fourteen, and a vast number of secular clergy, were killed by that one calamity, on which account a great lamentation arose (and no wonder) throughout all France, when life was changed into death, and joy converted into mourning. The same year another horrible occurrence took place in foreign lands, but it was fortunately turned so as to fall on the head of the contriver. Ingelram de Courci, a great man, and nearly the first of the nobles of France, following the example of his father as to cruelty and wickedness, furiously seized upon two clerical novices, who in fun pursued a beast as far 'as his boundaries, and, without proceeding to any further trial or investigation, hung the innocent youths. And when this was related to the king of France, he sent for him secretly, and having publicly convicted him of the crime, although many nobles entreated for him, and refused to give their votes against him, the king, recollecting his oath which he had taken at his coronation with his own mouth, pronounced sentence of hanging against him, and caused him to be imprisoned, to wait for the time of his sentence being carried into execution. Nor was there any thing wonderful in one who himself condemned others without a trial being now condemned to a similar punishment, following the example of his father, who having committed similar crimes, was executed in a not dissimilar manner. He left behind him large temporal estates, which he had preferred to all justice, yet they did not satisfy him in life, nor could he procure a ransom for his soul by them. The following month, the lord the king, on the Wednesday in the week after the Assumption of the blessed Virgin Mary, came to Saint Alban's, and he stayed there only one night,