This meant war.  And it was prompt and sharp on the part of the King of France, slow and dull on the part of the King of England, who was always more bent upon the conquest of Scotland than upon defending, on the Continent, his ally, the Count of Flanders.  In June, 1297, Philip the Handsome, in person, laid siege to Lille, and, on the 13th of August, Robert, Count of Artois, at the head of the French chivalry, gained at Furnes, over the Flemish army, a victory which decided the campaign.  Lille capitulated.  The English re-enforcements arrived too late, and served no other purpose but that of inducing Philip to grant the Flemings a truce for two years.  A fruitless attempt was made, with the help of Pope Boniface VIII., to change the truce into a lasting peace.  The very day on which it expired, Charles, Count of Valois, and brother of Philip the Handsome, entered Flanders with a powerful army, surprised Douai, passed through Bruges, and, on arriving at Ghent, gave a reception to its magistrates, who came and offered him the keys.  “The burghers of the towns of Flanders,” says a chronicler of the age, “were all bribed by gifts or promises from the King of France, who would never have dared to invade their frontiers, had they been faithful to their count.”  Guy de Dampierre, hopelessly beaten, repaired, with two of his sons, and fifty-one of his faithful knights, to the camp of the Count of Valois, who gave him a kind reception, and urged him to trust himself to the king’s generosity, promising at the same time to support his suit.  Guy set out for Paris with all his retinue.  On approaching the City-palace which was the usual residence of the kings, he espied at one of the windows Queen Joan of Navarre, who took a supercilious pleasure in gazing upon the humiliation of the victim of defeat.  Guy drooped his head, and gave no greeting.  When he was close to the steps of the palace, he dismounted from his horse, and placed himself and all his following at the mercy of the king.  The Count of Valois said a few words in his favor, but Philip, cutting his brother short, said, addressing himself to Guy, “I desire no peace with you, and if my brother has made any engagements with you, he had no right to do so.”  And he had the Count of Flanders taken off immediately to Compiegne, “to a strong tower, such that all could see him,” and his comrades were distributed amongst several towns, where they were strictly guarded.  The whole of Flanders submitted; and its principal towns, Ypres, Audenarde, Ter-monde, and Cassel, fell successively into the hands of the French.  Three of the sons of Count Guy retired to Namur.  The constable Raoul of Nesle “was lieutenant for the King of France in his newly-won country of Flanders.”  Next year, in the month of May, 1301, Philip determined to pay his conquest a visit; and the queen, his wife, accompanied him.  There is never any lack of galas for conquerors.  After having passed in state through Tournai, Courtrai, Audenarde, and Ghent,