Matthew, was the eldest son of the Empress Maude. He was known among the Normans as Fitz-Empress. He was known among the Anglo-Saxons as grandson of "the Good Queen Maude." He has since been known in English history as Henry the Second, the lover of Fair Rosamond, the husband of Eleanor of Aquitaine, the sire of a most rebellious family, and progenitor of those English kings renowned above all others in Christendom for strength in battle and wisdom in council.

We need not relate with minuteness how the young Plantagenet grew to manhood; how he was invested with the symbols of knighthood by his great uncle David, King of Scots; how, having acquired Aquitaine by marriage, and Normandy with Anjou. by inheritance, he became one of the most potent princes in Europe. Suffice it to say that, having landed on the shores of England in 1152, and been joined by many of the barons, he marched towards Wallingford, to fight for the crown which had eluded his mother's grasp.

By this time Eustace was a warrior of some distinction. In 1149 he had been knighted by Stephen, and sent in command of a force to ravage the lands of barons devoted to Henry. This was the first exploit of Eustace's manhood, and the reputation he had won during his incursions was such as to arouse Henry's jealousy.

Eustace was at Wallingford when young Henry

marched thither, and he bravely maintained his ground till his father's arrival; and as Stephen was still popular, and his partisans were numerous, he lost no time in marching along the left bank of the Thames to his son's relief. The river ran between the two armies regarding each other with hostile intent; and there was every prospect of its waters being crimsoned with blood, when several of the nobles, among whom was William de Albini, seeing that the choice lay between a new civil war and a compromise, interposed, and suggested a treaty. Accordingly, the King and his young rival held a conference across a narrow part of the Thames; and it was arranged that Stephen should enjoy the crown during his life, but that Henry should be recognised as his heir.

This was a death-blow to the hopes of Prince Eustace; and had Matilda of Boulogne-a woman whom misfortune could not depress-been alive, it is doubtful whether she would have agreed to terms which excluded her posterity from the throne. But Matilda had for some time been lying at rest within the Abbey of Feversham, and Eustace had no one capable of giving him counsel. He, who had lately been courted as heir to the kingdom's crown, was, doubtless, amazed at finding himself of such small account, and everybody willing to worship the rising sun. A sage might, under the circumstances, have administered to him the consolations of philosophy, or a priest the consolations of religion; but a man of the world would, in all

probability, have pointed out that Eustace had, somehow or other, forfeited his popularity, and that his character was a good deal the worse for the wear.

"Then

Such, indeed, appears to have been the case. went Eustace, the king's son, to France," says the Saxon Chronicle, "and took to wife the sister of the King of France. He thought to obtain Normandy thereby; but he sped little, and by good rights, for he was an evil man. Wherever he was, he did more evil than good; he robbed the lands, and levied heavy guilds upon them. He brought his wife to England. . . . Good woman she was; but she had little bliss with him, and Christ willed not that he should reign."

However that may have been-and doubtless the chronicler writes with some degree of prejudice—no sooner did Eustace perceive that his interests were sacrificed than he took counsel with the desperate, and gave way to the most dangerous excitement. Inspired alternately with vague hope and frenzied despair, he gathered a band of fighting-men in Cambridgeshire, and, ravaging the country as he went, marched towards Bury St. Edmund's.

When the Prince reached the abbey he was received with all due honour by the monks, who bent their hooded heads, and placed before him such good cheer as their house afforded. "It is not meat but money I want," exclaimed Eustace, and fiercely demanded a subsidy. "We are men of peace," said the

monks, taking courage to refuse, "and cannot conscientiously give the means of creating civil war, with all its devastation and bloodshed." The Prince flew into a violent passion, led his adherents to the fields, and wreaked his fury on the crops belonging to the abbey.

Having thus taken revenge on the monks, Eustace sat down to dinner; and, as the story is told, was choked by the first morsel he attempted to swallow. The truth appears to be that the unfortunate Prince was already under the influence of a brain fever. But, however that may have been, Eustace of Boulogne died on the 10th of August, 1153, at the age of eighteen, and he was laid by his mother's side in the Abbey of Fevershamn.

46

ARTHUR OF BRITANNY.

In the autumn of 1186 a grand tournament was held at the Court of Paris, then presided over by Philip Augustus. While taking part in the mêlée one of the King's guests was unhorsed, and trampled to death by the hoofs of the other combatants' steeds. The knight who thus died ranked as a Prince of England and a Peer of France; he was Geoffrey Plantagenet, son of our second Henry, and husband of Constance, the youthful Duchess of Britanny.

Some months later than the sad event which made her a widow-on Easter-day, the 29th of March, 1187 -while residing at Nantes, Constance, who had already an infant daughter, gave birth to a son. This boy was heir to the province which she had brought to the House of Plantagenet; and the inhabitants of Britanny, a wild and imaginative race, were enthusiastic with delight at their little Prince's birth. Cherishing a superstitious veneration for the memory of King Arthur, they, in defiance of the wishes of the powerful Henry, insisted on the infant receiving the name of that British hero of romance. In deference to their ardent