A.D. 1271. EDWARD WODNDED BT AN ASSASSIN. attacked at Westminster with a severefit of illness, and despairing of recovery, he commended himself to the prayers of the church. But the monks of Westminster, fearing to lose such a patron, though it was a very rainy season, went in procession barefoot to the New Temple in London, and celebrated a mass there, for the king's sake, in honour of the blessed Virgin Mary ; and as they were returning back again in the same manner as that in which they had gone, news was brought to them that the king had recovered from his illness ; for he had desired his friends to enjoin the monks to chaunt " They rejoice in heaven," saying that he was now convalescent, in consequence of the prayers of the monks. This year, the Irish rose in insurrection against the English, slaying a great number of them, and plundering others of their property. Edward marched out of Acre with a great army, and passing through Nazareth, he took the castles of Cako and Caiphas, and slew all the Saracens whom he found in them. But he speedily returned, fearing danger from false brethren. The same year, Boniface, archbishop of Canterbury, died on the first of August, and was succeeded by Robert de Kilwarby. How Edward was wounded by an assassin. A.D . 1271. King Edward celebrated the Nativity of the Lord at Westminster. His eldest son, prince Edward, was wounded with a poisoned dagger in the city of Acre, by a certain assassin sent for that purpose by the soldan of Babylon, in the disguise of a messenger. But, wresting the dagger from the hands of the assassin, he slew him in a moment ; for the kindness of the Saviour did not allow his soldier to perish ; and in process of time he was cured of his deadly wounds. Some nobles of Ireland, and especially one great noble, Thomas de Clare, who brought with him four Saracen prisoners, returned from the Holy Land to England. This year, the citizens of Norwich, at the instigation of the devil, burnt their cathedral church out of hatred to the monks. But king Henry, with the chief counsellors of his realm, immediately went to that city, and dragged forth the incendiaries, hanging and burning them by formal judicial sentence, and ordering the chattels of those who fled to be confiscated to the royal treasury.