Gloucester and his supporters. A tournament was intended to be an imitation of a fight, in which knights rode at one another and attempted to thrust one another off their horses. But it might easily lead to a real fight, and Simon sent orders to stop it. Gloucester was angry with Simon for interfering with his amusement; and he was still more angry with him for keeping the king's castles in his hands. Gloucester was himself one of the three electors, and he may very well have thought himself aggrieved when he was treated as a man of little importance. Before long he was preparing to attack Simon, as soon as he could find a favorable opportunity.

Gloucester was not likely to have any lack of followers. Before the end of May he obtained help in an unexpected way. Prince Edward had been kept as a prisoner ever since the battle of Lewes. One evening he went out with his guards, and invited them to try which of them had the swiftest horse. As soon as they had tired their horses by galloping them one against another, he rode off, and was once more at liberty.

At once Prince Edward summoned to his aid all Simon's enemies. He was soon at the head of a large army. Gloucester and his friends, who had fought by Simon's side at Lewes, now followed the prince. Simon's supporters were but few, and he had little to trust to but his own skill. If Edward behaved as he had behaved at Lewes, a victory might yet be won. Edward, however, had learned much since the day when in hot haste he galloped after the Londoners, and left his father a prey to the enemy. He was one of those who was made wiser and better by adversity, and he was now as skillful a general as Simon himself. In the meanwhile Simon had been gathering forces in Wales, and was still on the western side of the Severn when he summoned one of his sons, a younger Simon, to join him with all the troops he could collect in London and the South. The young man after some delay arrived at his father's strong castle of Kenil

worth. He and his men took no precautions against surprise, and even slept outside the castle walls. Early in the morning of August 1, Prince Edward and his men were upon them while they were still asleep. Young Simon and a few others escaped into the castle, which was too well fortified to be easily taken, but the greater part of his troops were obliged to surrender. The elder Simon would hardly have had a sufficient force if his son's army had joined him; he was now terribly outnumbered.

Of this disaster he knew nothing when, on the following morning, he crossed the Severn, and marched toward Kenilworth, where he expected to find his son. On the 4th he arrived at Evesham, bringing King Henry with him under guard. Before long he was told that a body of armed men was coming toward him. He heard the news with joy, as he believed the soldiers to be his son's; and, in order to be sure of the truth, he sent his barber, who was a long-sighted man, to the top of the abbey tower. The barber's intelligence was encouraging. He saw young Simon's banners floating at the head of the advancing troops. As they drew nearer Simon learned that he had been bitterly deceived. The banners were indeed his son's, but they were in the hands of the enemy. That enemy was too strong to be overcome, and even flight was impossible for a whole army. Evesham lies within a loop of the winding river Avon, some miles below the town of Stratford, where the great Shakespeare was afterward born. Edward had men enough to spare, and he had sent a detachment round to block the way of retreat over the bridge at the end of the loop. He himself bore down upon the town across the fields.

No one knew better than the old warrior that he had no hope of escape. "May the Lord have mercy on our souls,” he prayed, "for our bodies are undone!" He himself would stand and perish where he was; but a few might fly, and keep themselves for better times. One and all refused to live

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when their captain and their leader was dead. 'Come, then," said Simon, "and let us die like men; for we have fasted here, and we shail breakfast in heaven." Simon and his faithful band knelt down to ask forgiveness of their sins, and, in God's name, the bishop of Worcester declared them to be absolved. Then Simon rose, and with his whole force dashed forward to meet the foe. "By the arm of St. James!" he said, as he saw the orderly advance of the enemy," they come on well; they learned that not of themselves, but of me." The battle, if indeed it deserves the name, could not be of long duration. Prince Edward bore down upon Simon's little army in front, Gloucester charged upon its flank, a third force which had been sent to watch the bridge charged it in the rear. Simon's band of heroes was surrounded and outnumbered. Henry de Montfort, Simon's eldest son, was one of the first to be struck down. "Is it so?" said the father, when the news was brought to him. "Then, indeed, it is time for me to die." He rushed into the thickest ranks of the enemy, slashing, as he went, with his sword. Prince Edward's men pressed round him, and one, coming behind him, lifted his coat of mail, and stabbed him in the back with a mortal wound.

The noblest heart in England had ceased to beat. Edward, barbarous in his triumph, allowed the body of the great leader to be brutally mutilated in scorn, and his comrades to be pitilessly slaughtered. The common people indeed reverenced him as a martyr and a saint, and believed that miracles were wrought at his tomb. Poets sang how the precious flower of warriors had faded away, and how the land wept for the loss of him who had been victorious even in death.

It seems a strange thing to speak of him whose torn and bleeding corpse had lain upon the field at Evesham as victorious in his death. Yet no words could be more true. In the pages of history, as in our own experience, we sometimes meet with men who accomplish some great work which they

have undertaken, and who die full of years and honors amid the grateful thanks of those who have enjoyed the fruit of their labors. But there are others who specially call for our gratitude, whose whole life seems at the time to have been thrown away, who have aimed at that which they could not win, and who have struggled always against the stream, to be swept away in the end in some dark day of storm. These are, indeed, the heroes of the earth. It is not what a man accomplishes, but what he aims at, which is the measure of his greatness, for it is the noble aim which makes him great and good.

"That low man seeks a little thing to do,

Sees it and does it;

This high man, with a great thing to pursue,

Dies ere he knows it."

Simon had sought to accomplish no less a thing than to make England self-governing, that it might no longer be the prey of a spendthrift king, and of his foreign hangers-on who flocked across the Channel, like vultures to the carcass. When he died he left the country in the hands of that king who had done the wrong, and who seemed likely to return to his evil ways. Yet it was not so. By the side of Henry was now his son Edward, firm of will, and victorious in war. Edward had learned other things from Simon than the military art. He had learned to do justice, and to seek for justice by seeking to know the opinions of every class of the people. During the remainder of Henry's reign, Edward took care that wise laws should be made, and that Englishmen should have the mastery in England. When he himself came to be king, he upheld the principle that what was for the good of all should be consulted on by all. He gathered round him Parliaments even more complete than that which Simon had summoned, and there he strove to do justice to all. The spirit of the slain leader seemed to have passed into his conqueror.

It is given to no man, not even to Simon or to Edward, to make a free country. England is free, because for centuries before Simon was born Englishmen had been in the habit of discussing their own concerns, at least in their local assemblies, in meetings in town and country. But Simon is none the less worthy to be held in remembrance because he found followers ready to support him. His immediate failure may, in part indeed, be attributed to his own faults, his quick temper, and his contempt of men who were less in earnest than himself; but it was far more to be attributed to the jealousies of the great men, and to the unpreparedness of the middle class to combine permanently in his support. He needs no monument of marble to be remembered by. Wherever a free Parliament meets and gives laws in the English tongue, there is Earl Simon's monument.

XX.

WALLACE, THE SCOTCH PATRIOT.-PEARSON.

[Edward I., son of Henry III., had profited by the troubles of his father's reign. He realized the needs of his people, and sought to meet them by enacting wise and just laws. His maxim was, "What concerns all should be approved by all." He was brave and prudent, and, above all, faithful to his word. He completed the parliamentary system, re-organized the courts of law, improved the system of police, and developed the resources of the country. In many ways he was really a great king.

His kingly pride and love of order led him to wish to extend the supremacy of England over the entire island. He, no doubt, honestly believed that the action of the Scottish nobles, in inviting him to decide between the different claimants to the Scottish crown, gave him the right to exercise a paramount authority over Scotland. This explains his policy toward that country; it also explains, though it does not justify, his savage treatment of the patriot leader, William Wallace.]

IN the spring of 1303 Edward at last saw all difficulties removed. The treaty with France only awaited signature;