Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/96

50 had been left even as good as alone amidſt the enemies, when all was over, put ſome of his Poitovin dragoons into his Welch garriſons to prevent incurſions, and ſo returned to Glouceſter, where he kept his Chriſtmas. But in the mean time, on St. Katherine’s-day, the marſhal made a great ſlaughter of the Poitovins at Monmouth: and he and the baniſhed lords watched the King’s caſtles ſo narrowly, that when any went out of them abroad to prey, they took nothing elſe of them for their ranſom but their heads; inſomuch, that in a ſhort time there lay dead ſuch a multitude of theſe foreigners in the high-ways and other places, as infected the air.

for the diſcourſe which paſſed betwixt the marſhal and friar, who was familiar to the King and his counſellor, and came into Wales to tell the marſhal what the King and his counſellors ſaid of him, and to make overtures to him, it is too long to be here inſerted, but is exceedingly well worth the reading as it ſtands in Matt. Paris, p. 391, 392, 393. wherein the matſhal makes ſuch a ſolid defence of his whole proceedings, and diſcovers ſo well a grounded zeal for the rights of his country, as is ſufficient to inſpire every Engliſh breaſt with the love of a righteous