A.D. 1193. TRUCE WITH THE EARL 0Γ MORTAIGNE. ville would not agree thereto, because they were liegemen of earl John ; on which the archbishop of York left them, with his people, calling them traitors to the king and his realm. In the meantime, the king of Trance, with a strong hand, entered Normandy, and laid siege to Gisors ; on which Gilbert de Guascoil, who had charge of the castle of Gisors and the castle of Nelle, surrendered them both to the king of France, and became his adherent. However, he was despised among them for the treason he had been guilty of to his master the king of England, who had, in the fulness of his favour, sent him from if essina to take charge of the said castles. After this, the king of France came to Rouen, and said to the inhabitants of that place: "John, earl of Mortaigne, has done homage to me for England, and has given up to me Normandy and all other lands on this side the sea ; and I have come hither to take possession of this city, which is the capital of the whole of Normandy ; allow me to enter peaceably, and I will prove a kind and just master to you." To this they made answer : " See, the gates are open ; enter if you like ; no one opposes you." On which the king replied: " I will speak to my people about it;" and then, after consulting his people on the matter, declined to enter. Accordingly, the king of France being thus deceived in his hopes, retired from Rouen with his army, and burned his stoneengines, twenty-four in number, which he had posted around the city: he also broke his wine-casks, and having poured forth all the wine, took his departure, sending word to the citizens that he would visit them with a rod of iron. The king of England still remaining in the custody of the emperor of the Romans, all people were surprised at his thus delaying ; and some, in consequence of the predictions of the earl of Mortaigne, who always predicted that he would never return, doubted about him and his ever returning. In consequence of this, Walter, archbishop of Rouen, and the other justiciaries of England, although they had compelled the earl of Mortaigne to surrender, and had nearly taken his castle of Windsor, to which they had been laying siege, made a truce with the earl of Mortaigne until the feast of All Saints, the castles of Nottingham and Tickhill remaining in the charge of the earl, as before. But the castles of Windsor, and of Wallingford, and of the Peak, were given into the hands of queen Eleanor, the mother of the said earl of Mortaigne, and of some VOL. II. ν