In the mean time the Empress began to be sensible of the errors she had committed; and in hope either to retrieve the friendship of the legate, or take him prisoner, marched with her army to Winchester, where being received and lodged in the castle, she sent immediately for the legate, spoke much in excuse of what was past, and used all endeavours to regain him to her interests.  Bishop Henry, on the other side, amused her with dubious answers, and kept her in suspense for some days; but sent privately at the same time to the King’s army, desiring them to advance with all possible speed; which was executed with so much diligence, that the Empress and her brother had only time with their troops to march a back way out of the town.  They were pursued by the enemy so close in the rear, that the Empress had hardly time, by counterfeiting herself dead, to make her escape; in which posture she was carried as a corpse to Gloucester; but the Earl her brother, while he made what opposition he could, with design to stop her pursuers, was himself taken prisoner, with great slaughter of his men.  After the battle, the Earl was in his turn presented to Queen Maud, and by her command sent to Rochester to be treated in the same manner with the King.

Thus the heads of both parties were each in the power of his enemy, and Fortune seemed to have dealt with great equality between them.  Two factions divided the whole kingdom, and, as it usually happens, private animosities were inflamed by the quarrel of the public; which introduced a miserable face of things throughout the land, whereof the writers of our English story give melancholy descriptions, not to be repeated in this history; since the usual effects of civil war are obvious to conceive, and tiresome as well as useless to relate.  However, as the quarrel between the King and Empress was grounded upon a cause that in its own nature little concerned the interests of the people, this was thought a convenient juncture for transacting a peace, to which there appeared an universal disposition.  Several expedients were proposed; but Earl Robert would consent upon no other terms than the deposing of Stephen, and immediate delivery of the crown to his sister.  These debates lasted for some months, until the two prisoners, weary of their long constraint, by mutual consent were exchanged for each other, and all thoughts of agreement laid aside.

The King, upon recovery of his freedom, hastened to London, to get supplies of men and money for renewing the war.  He there found that his brother of Winchester had, in a council of bishops and abbots, renounced all obedience to the Empress, and persuaded the assembly to follow his example.  The legate, in excuse for this proceeding, loaded her with infamy, produced several instances wherein she had broken the oath she took when he received her as Queen, and upon which his obedience was grounded; said, he had received information that she had a design upon his life.[37]