574 ROGER OK WENDOVEB. [A.D. 1233. ticiary, Peter deRivaulx the treasurer, Hugh Bigod earl of Norfolk, William earl of Salisbury, William Beauchamp, William Daubeney the younger, and many others, who tied nearly naked, losing all their propercy; great numbers of the king's army then.and especially those who had lost their horses and all their money, went away in great trouble and returned to their homes. The king, who had been thus left as it were alone, in the midst of his enemies, then put his Poictevin freebooters in charge of the castles of Wales, to repel the attacks of his enemies, and gave the command of his army to the nobles, John of Monmouth, and Ralph deThoeny, to tiie latter of whom he also gave the castle of Matilda, which belonged to him by old right ; whilst he himself, after making these arrangements, returned to Gloucester. At the beginning of the month of November in this same year, thunder was heard, and arcompanied by dreadful Hashes of lightning, for several days ; and it came to be a usual proverb amongst labourers, that a woman ought not to weep for the death of her husband or her children, but rather for the thunder-storms, for they always foreboded the approach of famine or mortality, or some such things. Of the fierce battle between the marshal and the J'oictevins. In the same year the marshal, on one of his foraging incursions into the territories of his enemies, came to the town of .Monmouth, which was hostile to him, where he ordered his army to proceed on their expedition, whilst he with a hundred of his fellow knights turned aside towards the castle of that place to examine its condition, as he purposed to besiege it in a few days ; but as he was riding round the walls of the town, he was seen hy Baldwin de Guisnes, to whom the king bad entrusted the charge of that castle together with several Poictevins, and understanding that the marshal was there with only a few followers for the purpose of examining the castle, he sallied out with a thousand brave and well-equipped soldiers, and pursued him at full speed, designing to make him and his followers prisoners and bring them into the town. The earl Marshal's companions however, when they saw the impetuous advance of the enemy, advised him to consult their safety by (light, saying that it would be rash for such a few of them to engage with such a number of the enemy; to which the marshal replied that he had never as yet turned his back on his enemies in battle, and declared that he would not do so now, and exhorted them to defend themselves bravely and not to die unavenged. The troops from the castle then rushed fiercely on them and attacked them with their lances and swords : a severe though very unequal conflict then ensued, yet although there were only a hundred of the marshal's party to oppose a thousand of their adversaries, they fought for a great part of tin; day. But Baldwin de Gnisnes with twelve of his stoutest and best armed soldiers made an attack on the marshal in pcrsor, and