A.D. 1192. LETTEK OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF BOUEN. 279 night, with only three attendants, in the direction of Austria. The roads, however, being watched, and guards being set on every side, our dearly-beloved cousin Leopold, duke of Austria, captured the king so often mentioned, in an humble house in a village in the vicinity of Vienna. Inasmuch as he is now in our power, and has always done his utmost for your annoyance and disturbance, what we have above stated we have thought proper to notify to your nobleness, knowing that the same is well pleasing to your kindly affection for us, and will afford most abundant joy to your own feelings. Given at Creutz,94 on the fifth day before the calends of January." On these rumours being spread through England as to the capture of the king of England, Walter, archbishop of Eouen wrote to Hugh, bishop of Durham, to the following effect :— Tlie Letter of the archbishop of Rouen to the bishop of Durham, relative to the captivity of Richard, king of England. "T o his venerable brother in Christ and his most dearlybeloved friend Hugh, by the grace of God, bishop of Durham, Walter, by the same grace, archbishop of Rouen, health in all that is truly healthful. Various rumours having been spread abroad relative to the arrival of the king, at length, as the truth could no longer be concealed, everything relative thereto has become known to us. But, whether in adversity or in prosperity, it behoves us to display equanimity, as we cannot avert the will of God ; and inasmuch as His judgments are secret, we commend the fortuitous results of things to His mercy and providence. With grief of mind are we compelled to confess that it has befallen the lord our king otherwise than would have been expedient for his realm and all his faithful subjects ; and if we look more fully into his meritorious deeds, this misfortune is in no way the due of his actions. Eor he, who, for the sake of God exhausted all his patrimony, and indifferently entrusted the blood of himself and of his subjects to the fortune of war, deserved in all his wanderings to have received the protection of God. But this adversity, which is so opposed to our good wishes, is a test of his virtues, and not a mark of censure. And why are we obliged to say more than we could have wished ? We have thought proper to transmit to you a copy of a letter of the em 9 1 This place in Sclavonia may possibly be meant by " Kithiencie," as a misprint for " Riscensis."