Page:A literal translation of the Saxon Chronicle.djvu/257

245 sallied forth and plundered Bath, and all the surrounding country, and they laid waste all the lordship of Berkeley. And the chief men of Hereford and all that county, and the men of Shropshire, with many from Wales, entered Worcestershire, and went on plundering and burning, till they approached the county town, and they were resolved to burn this also, and to plunder the cathedral, and to seize the King's castle for themselves. The worthy Bishop Wulfstan seeing this, was much distressed in mind, because the castle was committed to his keeping. Nevertheless his retainers, few as they were, marched out, and through the mercy of God, and the good desert of the Bishop, they slew or took captive 500 men, and put all the rest to flight.—The Bishop of Durham did as much harm as he could in all the northern parts: one of the conspirators named Roger, threw himself into Norwich castle, and spread devastation throughout that country: Hugo also was in no respect less formidable to Leicestershire and Northampton. Bishop Odo, with whom these commotions originated, departed to his Earldom of Kent, which he ravaged, and he wholly laid waste the lands of the King and the Archbishop, find brought all the plunder into his castle at