39unmofo ^rtor, 125 



him who plundered both the church and churchmen. 

 Robert passed through the strong oaken door, but he 

 returned not again, save as a corpse borne by his tall 

 bowmen wearily along, to bury beneath some fine trees 

 near Kirkley. 



At this sad period of her life the countess took refuge 

 in. Dunmow Priory. It stood in a wild and secluded 

 spot on the borders of Sherwood Forest ; that great forest 

 to which she had fled for refuge in her young days, and 

 where her married life had passed. John heard that she 

 was there, and he rejoiced in the thought of vengeance, 

 for he remembered their rencounter in years gone by, and 

 how she had worsted him on that memorable day. 

 Summoning, therefore, a gallant knight, Robert de 

 Medeive, common ancestor of the present Earl Manvers, 

 and of one, to whom we owe this biographic memoranda 

 of the Lady Marian, he bade him go with all speed to the 

 Priory of Dunmow, and present to the Countess of 

 Huntingdon a valuable bracelet, as a token of amity and 

 reconciliation. Years chequered with much of sorrow 

 had passed since the fall of Baynard castle; since the 

 encounter of Marian and the prince in Sherwood Forest ; 

 perhaps she had learned in her cell, the blessedness and 

 the duty of forgiveness. Walter had heard concern- 

 ing the noble lady who thus cordially received him 

 as an herald from the king of the sufferings of her young 

 days, and how the brave Earl Huntingdon had given her 

 a home when her own fair patrimony was in the hands of 



