510 ROGER OP AVENDO VER. [A.D. 1153. the king, the duke, if he shall then be alive, shall take possession of the sovereignty without any impediment, and so regard be had to that prophecy of Merlin,* which says, " Piety shall hurt the possessor of things got by impiety, till he shall have [i. e. adopted] a father." It is evident that king Stephen adopted Henry for his heir, though he was not his son, seeing that he adopted him as his son and partner in the kingdom, and as his successor after his own death: all bowed to the duke in the person of the king, and to the king in the person of the duke : the king will henceforth receive into his own power the royalties- which have every where been usurped by his nobles : the lands which had been plundered by invaders, shall now return to the lawful owners, whose they had been in the time of king Henry; the rebellious castles, which had been built by all at their own discretion in the time of the king, eleven hundred and fifteen in number, shall now be destroyed ; the king will now people the farms with labourers, build again the houses that had been burned, he will fill the pastures with herds, and again cover the hill-tops with sheep : the clergy will now rejoice that proper tranquillity is restored, and shall no longer be oppressed with unjust exactions: sheriffs shall again be appointed in their usual places, and no one shall suffer from them unjustly : they shall not show favour to their friends, nor overlook crimes by indulgence : they shall protect every man in the possession of their own ; they shall punish the guilty : thieves and robbers shall be in terror of the gallows and of capital punishment. The soldiers, according to Isaiah, shall turn their swords into ploughshares, and their lances into spades ; the yeoman shall return from the camp to his plough, from the tent to his workshop, and rest in joy with his fellows after his fatigues in keeping watch : the rustic shall enjoy repose in peacefulness and tranquillity : commerce shall enrich the merchant ; one good and common mintage shall be struck for the whole kingdom. Thus the war, which for seventeen years had wasted the whole kingdom, was by this event put an end.to for ever. Of the knight Owen, who went alive into purgatory. When this treaty was confirmed, as Ave have.related it, * See Geoffrey of Monmouth, page 198, in the volume of the Antiquarian Library, entitled, " Six Old Chronicles," ice.