him in a convent at Bristol. The appeal of the Bretons to the liege-lord was listened to by Philip-Augustus; he summoned John, Duke of Normandy, to appear in Paris to be judged by his peers. Queen Eleanor had retired to Fontevraud, where she had taken the veil, overcome, it is said, with despair in consequence of her son's crime. {204} John had not answered Philip's summons: he was at Rouen, occupied with the festivities, while the King of France had entered Poitou, supported by the nobility, who had generally revolted in his favor, and was marching from there into Normandy. The Bretons had commenced the attack, and were advancing, pillaging the country. Many Normans joined them, so great was the horror inspired by the murder of Prince Arthur. The people had also organized an insurrection in Anjou and Maine, and Philip had taken possession of all the towns on his way when he effected a junction with the Bretons at Caen. "Let them go where they please," John would say in the midst of his revels, "I will take back in one day all that they have acquired with so much trouble." But the French army having appeared at Rodepont, in the neighborhood of Rouen, the King of England fled in great haste and recrossed the Channel in the month of December, 1203, in order to seek for succor. The English reinforcements did not arrive; Rouen had defended itself valiantly; but the citizens had at length yielded in consequence of a famine; Verneuil had just been taken; Castle Gaillard, fortified by Richard Cœur-de-Lion, capitulated after a siege of seven months. The garrison had defended tower after tower; there no longer remained a single French knight, when the French soldiers at length destroyed the last portion of the ramparts. John had not lifted a finger to defend his dominions, and the King of France was regaining possession of his duchy of Normandy, which had been separated from his dominions for two hundred and ninety-two years. Brittany, Touraine, Anjou, Maine, and Poitou slipped from the grasp of the King of England; Aquitaine alone remained to him. King Philip, who was now satisfied, allowed himself to be persuaded by a legate sent by the Pope and concluded a truce of two years' duration with King John, which was to commence in the month of December, 1206. {205}