A.D. 12.T2.] IMPRISONMENT OF HUBERT. he said, and trusting his cause to God, continually asking of the • lit ine mercy to protect him from all danger, as he himself had always regarded the king's honour and safety above all things. Th e king however paid little regard to the deserts of the man who had served him with such zeal, that he made it his only business to please him, and gave a general prohibition to all not to speak to him on behalf of Hubert, or to make any mention of him in his presence. Luke archbishop of Dublin, however, who was his only friend, incessantly begged of the king with tears at least to tell him what he meant to ilo with respect to Hubert ; to this the king is said to have replied, that out of a number of alternatives there was a choice for him, namely, either to abjure Kngland for ever, to undergo perpetual imprisonment, openly to acknowledge himself a traitor, or throw himself on the king's mercy. To this Hubert replied that he would not accept of either of these alternatives, as he had suspicions of the king's designs, for he did not recollect that he had ever done anything deserving of such disgrace ; nevertheless, that he would leave the kingdom for a time, to satisfy the king, but would not entirely abjure it.* After this he passed many days and nights blockaded in this chape 1 with two retainers, who supplied him with provisions till, hy the king's order, all kinds of food were denied them, and they themselves were ejected from the chapel. Hubert in this extremity, thinking it disgraceful to die by hunger, lett tire chapel of his own accord, and surrendered himself to the sheriffs who were watching him ; for, he said, he would rather trust to the king's mercy than the of hunger. The sheriffs then made him well secure, and, placing him on a horse, took him to London, where, hy the king's orders, he was closely conlined and shackled in the lower of the city. Vf the collection of the fortieth port of property granted to the king. " Henry by the grace of God, king of Kngland, to l'eter dc Thanen, William t'ujworth, and Adam Fitz-William, collectors of the fortieth part, greeting, lie it known to you that the archbishops, bishops, abbats, priors, and clergy, who hold lands which do not * l'aris adds:—" In the same year, on the 'J8th of October, Kalph earl ni Chester and Lincoln closed his life at Wallingford ; Ill's body was carried lo be entombed at Cluster, hut his bowels were buried at Wullingford. When news of his death was brought to Hubert ile llourg, and it was told ban that one of his enemies was dead, he said with a sigh, ' The Lord be merciful to him. lie was my man by his own doing, and jet never did me good wherever lie could do liie harm.' Then, taking a psalter, he placed himself before the great altar in the chapel where he was blockaded, and read a mass for the soul of the said Ralph. The hitter was succeeded in the earldom of Chester bv John, his nephew, the son of lus sister by earl 1 lai id, brother of the king of Scots; another nephew of his on bis «i»trr"s side obtained the earldom of Lincoln, and from being a Koon thus became an eari ; tie rail of Arundel too, another nephew of his, came into potsscssiou uf Ine hundred libiates of land.''