Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/150

104 which they admoniſh the lepate to ſee amended.

“ they treat,” ſays, “not like men, whom their fortunes had laid upon the ground, but as if they had been ſtill ſtanding; ſo much wrought either the opinion of their cauſe, or the hope of their party. But this ſtubbornneſs ſo exaſperates the King, as the next year following he prepares a mighty army, beſets the iſle ſo that he ſhuts them up; and prince, with bridges made of boats, enters the ſame, to whom ſome of them yielded themſelves, ate the reſt were diſperſed by flight.”

is needed not to have been at ſuch a loſs for a reaſon of theſe men’s reſolute behaviour, much leſs to have miſcalled it, if he had heeded the fourth article of their anſwer to the legate which he has tranſlated to loſs. To the fourth they ſay, “That their firſt oath was for the profit of the realm, and the whole church, and all the prelates of the kingdom have paſſed the ſentence of excommunication againſt all that contravene it: