“Sire,” said Isabella, who had learnt by this time at how dear a price she had purchased her crown, “on my part, I lost the best knight in the world for your sake!” “By the faith I owe you, in ten years’ time we shall have no corner safe from the King of France and his power!” “Certes! sir,” she answered, “I believe you are very desirous of being a king checkmated in a corner.” She seems to have taken every occasion of showing her contempt for the mean-spirited wretch to whom she had given her hand: but at present her treatment only incited the King’s ardor of affection: he formed more schemes of pleasure for her, and turned a deaf ear to all complaints from his deserted subjects, until Falaise had surrendered, Mont St. Michael was burnt, and Rouen itself was threatened. Then he took flight, and returned to England, where he made his Norman war a pretext for taxes; but when the Rouennais citizens, who still had a love for the line of Rollo, came to tell him that they must surrender in thirty days unless they were succored, he would not interrupt his game at chess to listen to them; and, when it was finished, only said, “Do as you can: I have no aid to give you.” They were therefore forced to surrender, Philippe swearing to respect their rights and liberties; and thus, after three hundred years, did the dukedom that first raised the Norman line to the rank of princes pass from the race of Rollo, disgracefully forfeited by a cowardly murder. The four little isles of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, and Sark, are the only remnant of the duchy won by the Northman. They still belong to the Queen, as Duchess of Normandy, are ruled by peculiar Norman laws, and bear on their coinage only the three lions, without the bearings of her other domains. Anjou, Maine, and Touraine, were won by the French, without one blow struck in their defence by Ingelger’s degenerate descendant, “whose sinful heart made feeble hand.” The recovery of his continental dominions served as a pretext for a tax of every tenth shilling; but this being illegal, Geoffrey, the Archbishop of York, refused to consent to, and threatened excommunication to all in his diocese who should pay it. John vowed vengeance, and placed his life in such danger that he was forced to flee from the country, and his death abroad saved the King from the guilt of the murder of a brother. With the money John had raised, he levied a force of Brabançons and free-companions, entered Anjou, burnt Angers, and besieged Nantes; but on hearing of Philippe’s advance, retreated, and thus ended all hopes of his regaining his inheritance. The Norman barons, whose lands had passed to the French, told him that, if their bodies served him, their hearts would be with the French, and, for the most part, transferred their allegiance, and he remained with his disgrace. Thus was Arthur avenged. CAMEO XXVI. THE INTERDICT. (1207-1214.) _King of England._ 1199. John. _King of Scotland_ 1163. William.