him that Englishmen, who had betrayed their natural lord, were not to be entrusted with such charges.  It was to little purpose that he promised Robert that every man should have his rights when the war was over.  The prospects of ending the war grew more remote every day.  The royalists took advantage of the discouragement of their opponents.  The regent was lavish in promises.  There should be no inquiry into bygones, and all who submitted to the young king should be guaranteed all their existing rights.  The result was that a steady stream of converts began to flow from the camp of Louis to the camp of the marshal.  For the first time signs of a national movement against Louis began to be manifest.  It became clear that his rule meant foreign conquest.

Louis wished to return to France, but despite the truce he could only win his way to the coast by fighting.  The Cinque Ports were changing their allegiance.  A popular revolt had broken out in the Weald, where a warlike squire, William of Cassingham,[1] soon became a terror to the French under his nickname of Wilkin of the Weald.  As Louis traversed the disaffected districts, Wilkin fell upon him near Lewes, and took prisoners two nephews of the Count of Nevers.  On his further march to Winchelsea, the men of the Weald broke down the bridges behind him, while on his approach the men of Winchelsea destroyed their mills, and took to their ships as avowed partisans of King Henry.  The French prince entered the empty town, and had great difficulty in keeping his army alive.  “Wheat found they there,” says a chronicler; “in great plenty, but they knew not how to grind it.  Long time were they in such a plight that they had to crush by hand the corn of which they made their bread.  They could catch no fish.  Great store of nuts found they in the town; these were their finest food."[2] Louis was in fact besieged by the insurgents, and was only released by a force of knights riding down from London to help him.  These troops dared not travel by the direct road through the Weald, and made their way to Romney through Canterbury.  Rye was strongly held against them and the ships of the Cinque Ports dominated the sea, so that Louis was still cut off from his friends at Romney.  A relieving fleet was despatched from Boulogne, but stress of weather kept it for a fortnight at Dover, while Louis was starving at Winchelsea.  At last the French ships appeared off Winchelsea.  Thereupon the English withdrew, and Louis finding the way open to France returned home.

    [1] Mr. G.J.  Turner has identified Cassingham with the modern
    Kensham, between Rolvenden and Sandhurst, in Kent.

    [2] Histoire des ducs de Normandie, etc., p. 183.