188 KOGEU OF WENDOVER. TA.D. 1200. the king of the English anil his wife Hawisa, daughter of the earl of Gloucester, because they were related in the third degree of affinity, the said king, by the advice of the king of the French, espoused Isabel, daughter of the count of Angouleme, formerly wife of Hugh, surnamed '-le Brun," earl of March : this marriage was afterwards very injurious to the king as well as the kingdom of England. Not long after this the kings held a conference at Vernon, and there Arthur did homage to the king of England for Brittany and his other possessions; but as be feared treachery on the part of king John, he still remained under the care of the French king. Command of the Lord, rchich came from heaven to Jerusalem, concernine the observance of the sabbath. About that timo a letter came from heaven to Jerusalem and was bung up over the altar of St. Simeon, in Golgotha, where Christ was crucified for the redemption of the world ; this letter hung for three days and nights, and those who beheld it fell to the earth, asking mercy of God, and beseeching him to show them his will; but on the third day, after the third hour of the day, the patriarch, and the archbishop Zachariah, raised themselves from their prayers, and, opening the fillet over the high-altar, took the sacred letter of God, and after inspecting it, found this inscription on it :— " I am the Lord, who have ordered yon to keep holy the day of the sabbath, on which I rested from my labours, that all mortals might on that day rest for ever; and ye have not kept it, nor have ye repented of your sins. As 1 spake by my gospel,— ' The heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.' I caused repentance of life to be preached to you, and ye did not believe ; I sent upon you pagans, and gentiles, who shed your blood upon the earth, and still ye did not believe ; and, because ye did not keep holy the Lord's day, for a few days ye endured l'amine; but I soon gave you plenty, and ye afterwards did worse : there fore it is my will that, from the ninth hour of the sabbath till sunrise on Monday, no one shall do any work, except that which is good, and whoever shall do so, shall atone l'or it ; and if ye obey not this my command, verily I sav unto you, and I swear by my scat and my throne, and by the cherubims which guard my holy seat, that 1 will not send