326 AÌTUALS OF EOGEB DE HOVEDEN. A.D. 1194. pointed for the conference, and with them awaited the arrival of envoys from the king of France; but to no purpose. The king of France, with no small army, came before a small castle, four miles distant from Rouen, called Fontaines, and laid siege to it ; and after labouring at the siege for four days, more than could be conceived, he at length took it, and it was levelled with the ground. In the meantime, earl John, the brother of the king of England, with Robert, earl of Leicester, and many other barons, had met at Rouen ; but as they had no one under whose guidance in especial to act as they would under our lord the king, and because they were much inferior in numbers and strength to the king of France, they did not dare attack that king. But when the king of France had destroyed the above-mentioned castle, and was on his road thence, he found the earl of Leicester off his guard ; he having gone forth from Rouen by night for the purpose of laying an ambush against him, and made a rash sally into the lands of Hugh de Gournay for the purpose of laying them waste ; upon which, with a few of his men, he was made prisoner by the king of France. After this, by the common consent of both kings, "William, archbishop of Bheims, the count de Nevers, the count de Bar, master Anselm, the dean of Tours, and many others, on behalf of the king of France, and "Walter, archbishop of Rouen, and seneschal and constable of Normandy, and many others, on behalf of the king of England, met near the Val Rodol, on the sixth day of the week after the feast of Saint Barnabas the Apostle, for the purpose of making a truce between the said kings. Accordingly, after a long deliberation held between them, they at length agreed to the following terms :— The king of England (it being in nowise against the will of the king of France) was to hold all the lands that he then held in his own hands, and in like manner the king of France was to hold in peace the castles which he had taken or then held ; and, in the meantime, they were each to be at liberty to fortify and strengthen all the fortresses which whole and unhurt he then held in his hands ; but those that had been destroyed, neither was in the meantime to be at liberty to rebuild. But if any other person besides them should wish, in rebuilding his castle, to build houses that had been destroyed or burnt, he was to be at liberty unmolested to make all provision for himself, either in erecting buildings, or in getting in crops of