he had indeed perished a victim of one of those fits of ungovernable fury in which—­and in which alone—­the Angevin counts sometimes added blunder to crime, or whether he had died a natural death from sickness in prison, or by a fall in attempting to escape,[35] it would be equally politic on John’s part to let rumor do its worst rather than suffer any gleam of light to penetrate the mystery which shrouded the captive’s fate.

John’s chance, however, was a desperate one.  A fortnight after Easter, 1203, the French King attacked and took Saumur.  Moving southward, he was joined by some Poitevins and Bretons, with whose help he captured sundry castles in Aquitaine.  Thence he went back to the Norman border, to be welcomed at Alencon by its count, and to lay seige to Conches.  John, who was then at Falaise, sent William the Marshal to Conches, to beg that Philip would “have pity on him and make peace.”  Philip refused; John hurried back to Rouen, to find both city and castle in flames—­whether kindled by accident or by treachery there is nothing to show.  Conches was taken; Vaudreuil was betrayed; the few other castles in the county of Evreux which had not already passed, either by cession, conquest, or treason, into Philip’s hands shared the like fate, while John flitted restlessly up and down between Rouen and various places in the neighborhood, but made no direct effort to check the progress of the invader.  Messenger after messenger came to him with the same story:  “The King of France is in your land as an enemy; he is taking your castles; he is binding your seneschals to their horses’ tails and dragging them shamefully to prison; he is dealing with your goods at his own pleasure.”  John heard them all with an unmoved countenance, and dismissed them all with the unvarying reply:  “Let him alone!  Some day I shall win back all that he is winning from me now.”

It was by diplomacy that John hoped to parry the attack which he knew he could not repel by force.  Early in the year he had complained to the Pope of the long course of insult and aggression pursued toward him by Philip, and begged Innocent to interfere in his behalf.  Thereupon Philip, in his turn, sent messengers and letters to the Pope, giving his own version of his relations with John, and endeavoring to justify his own conduct.  On May 26th, Innocent announced to both kings that he was about to despatch the abbots of Casamario, Trois Fontaines, and Dun as commissioners to arbitrate upon the matters in dispute between them.

These envoys seem to have been delayed on their journey; and when they reached France they, for some time, found it impossible to ascertain whether Philip would or would not accept their arbitration.  When at last he met them in council at Mantes on August 26th, he told them bluntly that he “was not bound to take his orders from the apostolic see as to his rights over a fief and a vassal of his own, and that the matter in dispute between the two kings was no