Page:A History and Defence of Magna Charta.djvu/97

righteous cauſe. Friar Agnellus tells him, that the King’s counſellors would have him ſubmit to the King’s mercy, and that, beſides other reaſons, it was his intereſt ſo to do; becauſe the King was richer and more powerful than he; and as for foreign aid, where the marſhal could bring one ſtranger the King could bring ſeven: The marſhal replies “It is true, the King is richer and more powerful than I; but he is not more powerful than God, who is juſtice itſelf, in whom I truſt in the maintenance and proſecution of mine and the kingdom’s right: nor do I truſt in foreigners, nor will ever ſeek their aid, unleſs, which God forbid! I ſhall be compelled to it by ſome unexpected and immutable neceſſity: and I know full well that the King can bring ſeven to my one; and truly, I believe in the way that he is in, he will ſoon bring more into the realm, than he will be able to get out again.” And after he had anſwered many other arguments, as he might confide in the King and his counſellors, and had reckoned up many inſtances of the court’s treachery and breach of their oaths about Magna Charta, and in ſeveral other caſes, he ſays, “Neither would it be for the King’s honour, that I ſhould conſent to his will, which were not ſupported by reaſon; nay, therein I ſhould do injury both

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