Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/123

ſons and men of circumſpection, pondering the circumſtances of things fetched deep ſighs from the bottom of their hearts, to ſee all ſtrangers ſo much in requeſt, and the ſubjects of the realm reputed as vile, which they took for a token of their irreparable ruin. At the ſame time there was the worſt news that could be of a legate a latere coming over, armed with legantine power, who was ready prepared in all things to ſecond the King in the deſtruction of the people of England, and to nooſe all gainſayers and oppoſers of the royal will, which is a tyrannical one, and to hamper them all in the bonds of an anathema. Moreover, it terrified both the prelates and nobles, and ſunk them into a bottomleſs pit of deſperation, to ſee that the King by ſuch unſpeakable craftineſs had brought in ſo many foreigners, dropping in one after another: and by degrees, had drawn into confederacy with him many, and almoſt all the principal men in England, as the earls of Glouceſter, Warren, Lincoln, and Devonſhire, and many other noblemen; and had ſo impoveriſhed the natural born ſubjects, to enrich his foreign kindred and relations, that in caſe the body of the realm ſhould have thoughts of ſtanding for their right, and the King were againſt them, they would have no power to reſtrain the

King