Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/72

26 the neighbouring counties about London, and to be ſure to keep that place blocked np. ue, with his army, lay the firſt night at Dunſtable; but after a little reſt, he was ſo intent upon his buſineſs, that before day he marched toward Northampton, and carried ſuch a Chriſtmas into thoſe parts, as they never had ſeen. For beſides his plundering and deſtroying all the houſes, parks, and poſſeſſions of the barons, his manner was ſtill, as he went along, to order his incendiaries to fire the hedges and villages, which could not be turned into plunder, “That he might refreſh his ſight with the damages of his enemies;” Matt. Paris, recalling that word, “If,” ſays he, “they are to be called his enemies, who were only willing to introduce him into the way of juſtice and humanity.” They were, indeed, his beſt friends in it, but they paid very dear for that good office.

before this, the ſpiritual ſword came likewiſe brandiſhing out againſt them, and they were run through and through with the pope’s excommunications. He firſt iſſued out a general excommunication againſt them, which they did not mind, nor think themſelves concerned in, as being not named in it, nor indeed deſcribed. For they were