A.I. 121.5.] JOHN r.F.SIEGKS KOCHESTF.K CASTLE. 33Ô frequently receiving letters from the barons at London, and being blamed in no slight degree for delaying to come to them, at length at Michaelmas, furnished his castle of Belvoir with a suilieioncy and even a superabundance of all kinds of provisions ami arms, and entrusted it to the care ot men who were faithful to him ; he then went to London and was received there with great joy by the barons, who immediately communicated to him a plan they had determined on, namely, to block up the. road against the. king, so that no way of approach might be open to him in any direction to lay siege to the city of London : they therefore picked out a strong body of troops, and appointing William d'Albiney to the command of them, as a man bold and tried in war, they sent them to occupy the town of Rochester. That castle had a short time before been confidentially entrusted by the king to the archbishop, who nevertheless, by what feelings instigated I know not, though the Lord does, delivered it up to the enemies of the, king. The latter, on entering it, found the place destitute not only of arms and provisions, but also of every kind of property, except what they themselves had brought with them, on which they in their disappointment thought of abandoning it; but William d'Albiney, exhorting and continually animating the minds of his companions to deeds of valour, said that it was not lawful for knights to desert, lest, what would be a great disgrace, to them, thev should by ami by be called knights-deserters. And thus all of them being powerfully encouraged by his words to bravery, they brought into the castle only what provisions thev could find in the. town of Rochester; and as these knights were a hundred and forty in number with all their retinues, there was no time left them to collect booty in the country around, or to provide themselves with any supplies of any kind. Iloic king John besieged the ensile of Jiochcstcr. After William d'Albiney and his companions had. as has been mentioned, taken possession of the aforesaid castle, kimr John, after three months' stay in the isle of Wight. is-"ied forth from that island and sailed to Dover: at the latter (dace his messengers, whom he had sent to the transmarine provinces, came to him bringing with them such an immense multitude of knights and soldiers, that all who beheld them