Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/588

574 But in the year 1141, the royal army was defeated, Stephen taken prisoner, and Matilda declared queen; but she abused her good fortune by cruelly loading him with chains in his prison, and when his wife made an offer of renouncing the crown, his leaving the kingdom, or even retiring into a convent, if they exacted it, to recover his liberty, she received her with scorn. She had indeed reason to be diffident of the oath he offered to take, as he had already broken very sacred ones, as well as the ties of gratitude. The bishop of Winchester, who offered himself as guarantee of these promises, indignant at her rigour, turned secretly to his brother; and the inhabitants of London, excited by him, demanded of Matilda the amelioration of the tyrannic laws imposed by the Norman princes. This was far less than they had exacted from Stephen; but the hard despotism of her forefathers was wedded to her heart, and she refused them with firmness. The people gave a cry of indignation, and the bishop of Winchester brought forward Eustace, the son of Stephen, at the head of a party of the revolted. They thought to have susprised her in London, from whence she escaped with difficulty, and where her goods were pillaged, and her name covered with opprobrium by the populace. They pursued her from city to city, and it was only by favour of a thousand disguises, by undergoing a thousand fatigues, that she at last arrived in a place of security. In passing from Devizes to Glocester, in the middle of a country occupied by her enemies, she was obliged to put herself into a bier, and be conducted by her guards, disguised as priests. During this perilous flight, she was accompanied by the king of Scotland; but her most faithful and valiant defender, Robert, earl of Glocester, wishing to retard the pursuers, was taken, and every method prac-