Λ. n. 1203.] SI.OTHFULNESS OF KING JOHN". 207 ground, but the stronger ones lie kept entire. At length messengers eiuue to king John with the news, saying, tinking of the French has entered your territories lis an enemy, has taken such and such castles, carries oil' the governors of them ignominiously bound to their horses' tails, and disposes of your property tit will, without any one gainsaying him. Jn reply to this news, king John said, "Let him ilo so; whatever he now seizes on I will one day recover :" and neither these messengers, nor others who brought him tic like news, could obtain any other answer, lint the earls anil barons, and other nobles of the kingdom of England, who had till that time, firmly adhered to him, when they heard his words and saw bis incorrigible idleness, obtained his permission and returned home, pretending that thev would come back to him, and so left the king with only a fewsoldiers in Normandy. Hugh de Gournaye, to whom king John had in all honour entrusted the castle of Montfort. delivered it up to the king of the French, and admitted bis soldiers into it by night, and in this manner, renouncing himself his fealty to his liege lord, fled to the king of France. In the meantime, the king of the English was staying inactive at Rouen with his queen, so that it was said tlr.it he was infatuated by sorcery or witchcraft; for, in the midst of all his losses and disgrace, he showed a cheerful countenance liai), as though he had lost nothing. The French king, in the meantime, with an immense army, catne to the town of Knyl, where there was a noble castle, which he at once surrounded with his engines of war ; but after he had arranged them in order, even before he had made one assault, Robert Fitz-Walter and Saycr de Quiney, the noblemen to whom the charge of the castle had bien entrusted, delivered it up uninjured to the French king, and as the least stone of thai castle was not damaged, so not one hair of the heads of the garrison was hurt; but the king of the French, who »n. much enraged against them, ordered them to be chained, and kept in close confinement at (.'ompiogno, where thev «ere retained in disgrace till a heavy ransom was paid for th ir release. Λ11 opposition to him in Normandy and the other transmarine territories having ceased, the French king marched through the provinces at will and without hindrance, and regained possession of several castles ; he also at this