174 ANNALS OP ' ROGER BE BTOVEDEN. A.D. 1190. of "wood. "Whenever these have once adhered to any kind of -wood, they never leave go thereof, except through main force, until they have pierced right through ; they make narrow straight holes when they have effected an entrance, and then from gnawing away the wood they become so increased in size and bulk, that in coming forth they make wider holes. In the mean time, .Richard, king of England, caused stone engines and other engines of war to be prepared, for the purpose of taking the same to the land of Jerusalem. In the same year, "William, bishop of Ely, legate of the Apostolic See, chancellor of our lord the king and justiciary of all England, oppressed the people entrusted to his charge with heavy exactions. For in the first place he despised all his fellows whom the king had associated with him in the government of his kingdom, and disregarded their advice. Indeed, he considered no one of his associates in the kingdom his equal, not even John, earl of Hortaigne, the king's brother. Accordingly, he laid claim to the castles, estates, abbeys, churches, and all the rights of the king as his own. On the authority also of his legateship, he came to take up his lodging at bishoprics, abbeys, and priories, and other houses of the religious orders, with such a vast array of men, horses, hounds, and hawks, that a house where he took up his abode for only a single night, was hardly able within the three following years to recover its former state. From the clerks and laity he also took away their churches, farms, lands, and other possessions, which he either divided among his nephews, clerks, and servants, or else, to the loss of the owners, retained possession of them himself, or squandered them away to supply his extraordinary expenses. Did not this wretched man consider that he should one day have to die ? Did he not think that the Lord would demand of each an account of his stewardship, or honorable conduct in his government ? But weB is it said as to such men as this : "Nothingis more unendurable than a man of low station when he is exalted on high. On every side he strikes, while on every side he fears ; against aB does he rage, that they may have an idea of his power ; nor is there any beast more foul than the rage of a slave let loose against the backs of the free."8 4 9 1 " Asperius humili nihil est cum surgit in altum, Cuncta ferit, dum cuncta timet, dessevit in omnes, Ut seposse putent ; nec bellua tetrior ulla, Quatn servi rabiee in libera terga furentis."