The desultory and exhausting civil war between cousins for thethrone of England had been going on for more than five years, inspasmodic motion about the south and west, seldom reaching as farnorth as Shrewsbury. The Empress Maud, with her devoted championand illegitimate half brother Earl Robert of Gloucester, heldalmost undisputed sway now in the southwest, based on Bristol andGloucester, and King Stephen held the rest of the country, but witha shaky and tenuous grip in those parts most remote from his basein London and the southern counties. In such disturbed conditionsevery baron and earl was liable to look to his own ambitions andopportunities, and set out to secure a little kingdom for himselfrather than devote his energies to supporting king or empress. EarlRanulf of Chester felt himself distant enough from eitherrival’s power to feather his own nest while fortune favoredthe bold, and it was becoming all too plain that his professedloyalty to King Stephen took second place to the establishment of arealm of his own spanning the north from Chester to Lincoln. CanonGerbert’s errand certainly implied no confidence in theearl’s word, however piously pledged, but was meant to holdhim quiescent for a time for his own interests, until the king wasready to deal with him. So, at least, Hugh judged the matter.

“Robert,” said Hugh, “is busy strengtheningall his defenses and turning the southwest into a fortress. And heand his sister between them are bringing up the lad she hopes tomake king some day. Oh, yes, young Henry is still there in Bristol,but Stephen has no chance in the world of carrying his war thatfar, and even if he could, he would not know what to do with theboy when he had him. But neither can she get more good out of thechild than the pleasure of his presence, though perhapsthat’s benefit enough. In the end they’ll have to sendhim home again. The next time he comes—the next time it maybe in earnest and in arms. Who knows?”