They rang when a
baby was born, and when there was a death. And for many other things
they rang. Now, under the interdict, no bell rang. There were no usual
church services, and everywhere was fasting. A strange England it
seemed.
The king had never gotten on well with his barons, and they hated him.
Nevertheless they would have stood by him if he had been at all just to
them. And surely he needed them to stand by him, for all the world was
against him. The French were eager to fight him, and the Church was
arrayed against him. But all these things only made the king harder and
more unjust to the barons because just now they were the only ones in
his power, and his wicked heart was full of rage. He had hit upon one
means of punishing them which they all could feel,--he struck them
through their wives and children. Some of the barons were obliged to
flee from England for their lives. Many were obliged to give the king
their sons as pledges of their loyalty. In every man's knowledge was
the sad case of one baron who had been obliged to flee with his wife
and son into hiding. The king, through his officers, had pursued them,
ferreted them out of their hiding-place, taken the wife and son
captive, shut them up in prison, and starved them to death.
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