The following year Mortimer planned his escape from the Tower with the assistance of the constable and others. The queen herself provided a drink for the guard that put them into a heavy sleep. Then the prisoner, who had worked a hole from his dungeon into the kitchen of the royal apartments, climbed up the chimney and got out on the roof, along which he stealthily crawled to the Thames side, and descended by a rope ladder. The constable awaited him in a little boat, and rowed him across the river, where seven of his friends met him on horseback. With this guard he went to the coast of Hampshire, and pretended to sail to the Isle of Wight; but, instead of that, the fugitive got on board a large ship that had been engaged for him, and was soon landed in Normandy. Thence he went to Paris. When the king heard of the escape a great hue and cry was raised for Mortimer, dead or alive, but his whereabouts were not suspected, and he remained safely hidden in France. The Despencers now began to influence the king as powerfully as Gaveston had done, and the queen commenced her plans for their destruction. She declared that they were the cause of all the recent bloodshed, and pretended that her Uncle Lancaster was a saint and a martyr, who only met his death by the advice of these favorites. They had really committed one fault for which Isabella could not forgive them; they had caused her allowance to be curtailed, and no one ever offended her without paying dearly for it. She had ceased to be lovable to the king, and so had lost her hold on him; but for this also she blamed the Despencers. Then she was deprived, by their advice, of her French servants and of all her possessions in England. She and her husband quarrelled to such an extent that at last they refused to see each other at all. But Isabella was not meek enough to stand ill-treatment, so she complained to her brother, King Charles, who had succeeded to the throne of France. He wrote a very indignant letter to Edward, declaring his intention of seizing all the provinces of the French crown held by England. But Edward was not prepared for war, and neither he nor his ministers dared to go to France to face the angry brother of Isabella.