could poſſibly.” To this they made anſwer, “That when they took that oath, they did not underſtand by it any other aid but ghoſtly and wholeſome advice.” A very trim anſwer. And all the reſt are much after the ſame faſhion. And to conclude this whole reign, at his laſt parliament at Marleburgh, Magna Charta was confirmed in all its points.
Thus have I brought down the hiſtory of Magna Charta to the end of Henry III. wherein you have a ſhort, but punctual account of that affair, and the true face of things. For I have told the ſtory with the ſame air the writer himſelf does, and have been ſo faithful in the relation, as to keep cloſe to his very phraſe; whereby, in ſeveral places, it is the worſe Engliſh though the better hiſtory. As for the writer himſelf, he was the moſt able and ſufficient, and the moſt competent that could be, writing upon the ſpot, and having all the advantages which, added to his own diligence, could give him true information. For he was hiſtoriographer royal to K. Henry II. and invited by him to the familiarity of dining and being in frequent conference with him; was directed by him to record ſeveral matters, and to ſet them down in indelible characters,
