398 ROGER OF WEXDOVER. [A.M. 1217. to tell him of their sad losses ; he however sneeringly told them that it was owing to their flight that their companions had been made prisoners, because if they had remained to fight, thev would perhaps have saved themselves as well as their companions from capture and death. It must be believed that this defeat happened to Louis and the barons of En "land bv a just dispensation of God, for as they had now continued nearly two years under sentence of excommunication, unless thev were corrected by divine punishment, men would sav, "There is no God," and so there would be none who acted rightly, no, not one. Of the limili of' pojic /mioceni. On the 10th of duly in the same year, pope Innocent paid the debt of human nature, after filling the pontifical chair for eighteen years five months and four days; he was succeeded by Ilonorius, formerly called Cencio, who held the see in the Roman church ten years seven months and nineteen days. /loir Louis sent to his father for troops. About this time Louis, owing to the misfortune which had befallen him at Lincoln, despaired of effecting his purpose, he however by good advice sent messengers to his father, and to his wife the lady Blanche, telling them of the irreparable losses which had befallen him and the barons of England at Lincoln, which he said was brought on them by God more than by man ; for the king of the English had now become so powerful, that he with a large force paraded through the cities and towns round London, and precluded him and his companions from leaving the city. '* Moreover," said he, "all kinds of provisions ari' failing us and our followers in the city, and even if they abounded there, we have no means of buying them; therefore I inform you that I have no means of resistance, or of having r'uiihind, unless you supply me with strong militarv aid." When this news reached the father from his son, ami the wife from her husband, they were much concerned at his being placed in this strait;* and as the king was afraid to give assistance to " Paris addi:—" The French king, on hearing this, sail, 'Dies not William Marshall ttill live?' And on being tuld that he did, he said, ' 1