Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/102

56 and the reſt of the biſhops, came to the King, condoling the deſolation both of him and the kingdom, and as it were with one heart, and mind, and mouth, ſaid: “Our lord the King, we tell you in the name of, as your liegemen, that the counſel you now have and uſe, is neither ſound nor ſecure, but cruel and perilous both to you and the realm of England; We mean the counſel of , biſhop of Wincheſter, , and their accomplices: Firſt, becauſe they hate and deſpiſe the Engliſh nation, calling them traitors, and cauſing them all to be ſo termed, thereby turning away your heart from the love of your nation, and our hearts and the hearts of the nation from you; as appears by the marſhal, than whom there is not a better man in your land, whom, by diſperſing their lyes on both ſides, they have perverted and alienated from you. And by the ſame counſel as their’s is, your father firſt loſt the hearts of his country, and afterwards Normandy, and other lands; exhauſted his treaſure, and almoſt loſt England, and never afterwards had peace. By the ſame counſel ſeveral diſaſters have happened to yourſelf;” which they there enumerate. They likewiſe tell him, by the faith in which they were bound to him, that his counſel was not for peace, but for breach of peace,