Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/105

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MAGNA CHARTA.
59

“never to ſee his face any more.” And afterwards being very deſirous of peace, ſent Edmund the archbiſhop, with the biſhops of Cheſter and Rocheſter into Wales, to Leoline and the marſhal, to treat of peace.

With Leoline they might treat, but the earl marſhal was gone into Ireland, as it had been before projected by the evil counſellors, to take care of his caſtles and poſſeſſions, which he heard were ſeized and ſpoiled: where as ſoon as he arrived, he was waited upon by Geoffrey Marsh his liegeman, a perfidious old man, who was one of thoſe to whom the letter was directed, and was a ſharer in the lands which were granted by charter. But having been an old ſervant to his father, and pretending an extraordinary honour and affection for the marſhal, he thereby had that power with him, as to lead him into all the ſnares and traps which were laid for him, and which at laſt coſt him his life, though he ſold it very dear. The ſtory is too long for this place, but he fell a noble ſacrifice for the Engliſh liberties, though neither the firſt nor the laſt in that kind.

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