591 A.D. 13C6. A QUARREL ARISES IN FRANCE. pain more calmly—and that earl claimed to he descended from the royal family. Therefore, some of the courtiers thought it an improper and unbecoming thing that he should be tried with other malefactors ; but the king, regarding not the line of his descent, but the requirements of justice, replied to them : " In proportion as his rank is higher, so, too, is his fall evidently greater ; but as he is more noble in blood than the other parricides, let him, for his wickedness, be hung higher than the rest. Nor are ye ignorant how often he has desired to betray us in England, Scotland, and Flanders ; take him, and let him be tried with all justice in London." And when he had arrived in that cityi on the seventh day of November, he was condemned at Westminster, in the king's palace. But because he was descended from the royal family, he was not dragged through ttte streets, but placed on a horse, he was hanged on a gallows fifty feet high. Afterwards he was taken down when half-dead, that he might suffer more pain, and cruelly beheaded. And his body, a violent fire having been previously kindled before his eyes, was burnt, with his flesh and bones, and reduced entirely to ashes. And his head was fixed on London Bridge, among the heads of other traitors, but was placed higher than theirs, because he was of the royal family. The king, staying at Lavercost, near Carlisle, sent justiciaries to Berwick, by whose judgment Nigel Bruce, a young knight of exceeding beauty, because he had consented to the treason of his brother, and all the others who were taken prisoners with him, were dragged through the streets and hanged, and finally beheaded. And while bloodshed of this kind was stalking through Scotland, about the same time a violent quarrel arose between the King of France and the citizens of Paris, for the following reasons. There was in the city of Parie a man of illustrious family, of exceeding riches beyond all his fellow-citizens, by name Stephen Barbet. He, coming to the king of France, spoke thus : " My lord, the value of your revenue is diminished to half of its proper amount. From this the merchants derive gain, and you suffer injury. Order, therefore, that your revenue shall from henceforth be of thrice its present amount." So the two parties, the one being covetous and the other crafty, agreed together at once. Nor did this device escape the notice of the rest of the citizens. So they said to Stephen : " You are an eminent man in the city ;