492 ROGER OP AVENDO VER. [A.D. 1140. How king Stephen besieged Lincoln castle. A.D. 1140. Before Christmas, king Stephen laid siege to Lincoln, the castle of which Ralph earl of Chester had just received, and he defended the eity against the king until the purification of the blessed Virgin. Then the earl aforesaid, with Robert earl of Gloucester, king Henry's son and his own father-in-law, eame to Lincoln with a large army to raise the siege, and boldly crossing a marsh which was almost impassable, drew out his troops the same day, and offered the king battle. The earl himself, being a man of wonderful prowess, led the first line; the second was headed by those whom Stephen had banished ; and the third was commanded by Robert earl of Gloucester. Meanwhile king Stephen heard mass with much devotion, and, when in the course of the ceremony, he put into the hands of bishop Alexander the royal wax-taper as the usual offering to God, it was suddenly broken and extinguished, which foreboded sorrow to the king : the eucharist also fell upon the altar, together with Christ's body, by reason of the string breaking, and this was an omen of the king's ruin. Stephen on foot disposed his troops with much care, and industriously arranged around himself all his men in armour without their horses ; but he arranged all his earls with their horses to fight in two bodies. The army of the rebel earls was very small, whilst that of the king was numerous, and united under one standard. At the beginning of the battle, the exiles, who were in the van, charged the king's army, in which were earl Alan, Robert earl de Mellent, Hugh Bigod, the earl of East-Anglia, earl Simon, and the earl of Warenne, with such fury, that some of them were slain, some taken prisoners, and the rest fled. The division commanded by the earl of Albemarle and William of Ypres, charged the Welsh, who advanced on the .flank, and routed them : but the earl of Chester attacked this body, and defeated them like the rest. Thus all the king's knights fled : William of Ypres, a man of the rank of an earl, and the others who could not flee, were all taken and thrown into prison. A remarkable circumstance here happened: king Stephen, like a roaring lion, alone remained in the field ; no one dared to encounter him : gnashing with his teeth, and foaming like a mountain boar, he repulsed with his battle-axe the troops