Λ .η. 1213.] MARRIAGE OF KING JOHN. 283 been just recovered, under God, by the assistance of the crusaders, and uniting with tin; counts of Toulouse, Koix, ami Commenges, lie witli the citizens of Toulouse and a large army on the third day of tlie week after the nativity of emir hcltcld Robert the clerk, wlio was the third of the messengers, and whu was a mnall dark man, with OMO ami longer than the other, and having lingers all misshapen, namely, two sticking together, ami with a face like a Jew. Thinking, therefore, that such a contemptible looking person would not he sent to manage -» ilillicult business unless he were wise and clever, and well understood it, and seeing his cowl and tonsure, and finding hy it that he was a clerk, the king ordered him to be called; for when the others had been speaking he had till now stood silent at a distance from him. lie therefore kept him and sent away the others, and then had a long secret interview with bini, the particulars of which the said Robert afterwards disclosed to bis friends. The salii king asked him if king John was a man of moral character, and if lie had brave eons, and if lie possessed great generative power ; adding that, if Robert told him a lie in these matters, he would never believe a Christian again, especially a clerk. Robert then, w: his word as a Christian, promised to give true answers to all the questions which he put to him. Me therefore answered affirmatively that John wad a t\ rant rather than a king, a destroyer rather than a governor, an oppresser of his own people, and a friend to strangers, a lion to his own subjects, a iamb to foreigners and those who fought against him ; for, owing to his slothfulness, he had lost the duchy of Normandy anil many other of his territories, and moreover was eager ti lose the kingdom of England or to destroy it; that be was an insatiable extorter of money,and an invader and destroyer of the possessions of his own natural subjects; be iiad begotten few strong children, or rather none at all, but only such as took after their father; he had a wife who was hateful to him and who hated him; an incestuous, evil disposed, adulterous woman, and of these crimes she had bien often found guilty, on which the king ordered her paramours to be seized and strangled with a rope on her bed; yet nevertheless this same king was envious of many of liis nobles and relations, and violated their marriageable daughters and sisters; and in his observance of the Christian religion he is wavering and distrustful, as you have heard.'' When the king emir heard all this, he not only disdained John as he had before done, but detested him; and, according to his own law cursed him; adding, "Wh y do the wretched Knglish permit such a man to reign, and lord it over them } they arc indeed effeminate »nd servile." Robert replied: ''The English H re the most patient of men until they are offended and injured beyond endurance; but now, like a lion or an elephant, when he feels himself hurt or sees his blood, they are enraged, and are proposing and endeavouring, although late, to shake the yoke of the oppressor from their necks." When the king emir heard this, he blamed the too easy patte nee of the Knglish. which the interpreter, who had been present ail the time, rightly asserted to be fear. The said king conversed on many other subjects besides this with Robert, all which the latter afterwards told to h.s friend* in Kngland. He then made him several costly presents of gold and silver, various kinds of jewels and silks, and dismissed him on friendly terms;