Femes, and kept possession of them in spite of a sentence of excommunication which was pronounced against him. After the Protector had gone the way of all flesh, and had been buried in the Temple Church, the reverend bishop came to London, and mentioned the circumstance to the king, telling him that the earl of Pembroke had certainly died excommunicated. The king was much troubled and alarmed at this intelligence, and besought the bishop to go to the earl's tomb and absolve him from the bond of excommunication, promising the bishop that he would endeavour to procure him ample satisfaction. So anxious, indeed, was king Henry for the safety of the soul of his quondam guardian, that he accompanied the bishop in person to the Temple Church ; and Matthew Paris declares that the bishop, standing by the tomb in the presence of the king, and in the hearing of many bystanders, pronounced these words: " Ο William, who lyest here interred, and held fast by the chain of excommunication, if those lands which thou hast unjustly taken away from my church be rendered back to me by the king, or by your heir, or by any of your family, and if due satisfaction be made for the loss and injury I have sustained, I grant you absolution ; but if not, I confirm my previous sentence, so that, enveloped in your sins, you stand for evermore condemned to hell !" The restitution was never made, and the indignant bishop pronounced this further curse, in the words of the Psalmist : " His name shall be rooted out in one generation, and his sons shall be deprived of the blessing, I NCREASE AND MULTIPLY; some of them shall die a miserable death ; their inheritance shall be scattered ; and this thou, Ω king, shall behold in thy lifetime, yea, in the days of thy flourishing youth." Matthew Paris dwells with great solemnity on the remarkable fulfilment of this dreadful prophecy, and declares that when the oblong portion of the Temple Church was consecrated, the body of the Protec z 2