But which could fill the place of one,

That one beneath the wave?

Before him pass'd the young and fair,
In pleasure's thoughtless train ;

But waves dash'd o'er his son's bright hair,

He never smiled again!

MRS. HEMANS.

It does not seem that this great affliction led Henry to repent of his wickedness, for he did not restore his brother's property, but left him to linger on in his gloomy prison still.

"Twice fourteen winters Cardiff's gloomy towers

Heard his poor eyeless, captive brother's moan." Henry's daughter Matilda, having been left a widow by the emperor, married Geoffrey Plantagenet, earl of Anjou, and had three children, the eldest of whom afterwards reigned in England as Henry the second. Being exceedingly fond of his daughter, Henry passed the latter part of his life in France, to be near her. He is said to have died from an illness brought on by eating too freely of lampreys, a kind of eel, which was his favourite dish; a lesson to my little friends to be moderate in the indulgence of their appetite, for even in this we may sin. "Whether, therefore, ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of

MORAL REFLECTIONS.

83

God." (1 Cor. x. 31.) Henry the first died at St. Denis, a little village in Normandy, December 1st, 1135, in the thirty-sixth year of his reign. "How instructive is the history of this king! Superior to his contemporaries in worldly wisdom and scholastic learning, anxious to extend his own power, and to perpetuate his family, even in this life he saw all that he most earnestly desired pass away from his grasp. In his case we see, that wise men die, likewise the foolish and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling-places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names. Nevertheless, man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish. This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings.' (Ps. xlix. 10-13.) How many do we behold every day pursuing the same foolish and unholy course!"*

'History of England," published by the Religious Tract Society.

CHAPTER VIII.

STEPHEN FROM 1135 TO 1154.

HENRY the first left the crown to his daughter Matilda, and made all his nobles take an oath to obey her as their queen. Among the rest was his favourite nephew, Stephen, earl of Blois; but his oath was a false one. No sooner was Henry dead, than Stephen persuaded the barons to make him king, and he found this by no means difficult, for those rough, turbulent men disliked the idea of being governed by a woman, and Stephen's pleasant manners disposed most people to think favourably of him. Indeed, there is reason to believe that, had he come lawfully by the crown, he would have been a wise and good king; but having acted so completely in defiance of every consideration of law and justice, in possessing himself of his cousin's inheritance, it was impossible for him to induce his subjects to live according to law; and nothing could be more dreadful than the state of the country during his reign.

To keep the barons in good humour with him, he

suffered them to acquire far too much power. He permitted them to build castles on their estates, on the pretence that they were necessary for the protection of their poor neighbours; but the protection they afforded was much like that we should expect from a wolf entrusted with the care of a flock of sheep. These barons and their attendant knights seized the cattle and sheep of their neighbours, and everything else they could lay their hands upon that was of any value; and not content with this, they imprisoned travellers and others in the stronghold of their castles, and put them to tortures too dreadful to relate, in order to compel them to give up their money. When Stephen found they made so bad a use of his indulgence, he tried to keep them in better order; but they made no scruple of taking up arms against him, and then, resistance was useless, because of these castles, or forts, in which they could shut themselves up with their followers, and set any force sent against them at defiance. It must have caused Stephen much grief to see his poor subjects so cruelly oppressed, but he could hardly expect these unruly barons to be true to him, when they knew how treacherous had been his conduct to Matilda: and as we find that even in this world the wicked seldom go unpunished, so this

usurper was never at peace the whole time he reigned, being constantly at war with Matilda and her son, or engaged in contests with the barons and clergy; for, strange as it seems to us, even the bishops had castles, and defended them as obstinately as

barons.

Matilda, finding that much discontent was felt throughout the country with Stephen's government, thought it a good time to try to gain possession of the crown. She had an army commanded by her half-brother, the earl of Gloucester, and the land was desolated with civil war. Sometimes Matilda had the victory; at others, Stephen. At length the king was beaten for a time, and imprisoned in Bristol Castle; and Matilda reigned for a few months. She does not appear, however, to have acted prudently. She was haughty and ungracious to her friends, and insolent to her enemies; so that people began to remember with regret Stephen's mild temper and conciliating manners. I have little else to tell you of Matilda. The only circumstance that occurs to me is, that in her short reign the first stone bridge in England was built; before that they had been made of wood. This was at Stratford-le-bow, so-called, from the bow, or arch, of the bridge.