Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/65

Rh ſeen again, unleſs in the French and Iriſh maſſacres: it looks like hell broke looſe. For theſe Satellites Satanæ, the Devil’s life-guard, as Matt. Paris calls them, ſeemed to have prepenſed malice againſt mankind; and being led on “a crudeli rege, imò cruento tyranno,” by a cruel King, nay, it was a bloody tyrant; no furies could put innocent people in cold blood, of all ages and conditions, to more exquiſite tortures, nor ſport themſelves more in making havoc and deſolation than they did. And with this horrid ravage he over-run England, and proceeded as far as Berwick in half a year’s time; all the caſtles of the barons falling to him, either ſurrendered, or for the moſt part abandoned.

the mean time, moſt of the barons were at London, where we left them, making holiday for the grant of Magna Charta, and pleaſing themſelves, that after ſo long oppreſſion and Ægyptian bondage, the liberties of England were reſtored again in their days. They thought, likewiſe, that had touch’d the King’s heart, and he was become a new man, and meant the good faith he had ſworn, and flattered themſelves that he would, from henceforward, inviolably obſerve their charters. But they were interrupted in