The people, however, remained disaffected towards the English king. A year passed away without any change in this state of things, when one day, as William was hunting in the New Forest, a messenger came to him with the intelligence that Helie had obtained possession of the town of Le Mans, that the inhabitants had joined him, and were besieging the castle, containing the Norman garrison. Rufus immediately set off for the sea-coast without waiting for an escort; and when some of his lords came up with him, as he was about to embark, they counselled him to wait until troops could be summoned to accompany him. William replied, "Such as love me, I know well, will follow me," and went at once on shipboard. A storm was blowing so violently that even the sailors hesitated to set sail; but the king was determined to proceed, and cried out to the master to weigh anchor, asking him if he had ever heard of a king that was drowned? Rufus escaped the storm, and landed next day at Harfleur. When the news of his advance reached Le Mans the insurgents were struck with dismay. Helie, forgetting his knightly fame, and the safety of the people, disbanded his troops and fled at the mere sound of the enemy's approach, while William passed through the country, dealing ruin and desolation around him. On his return to England, the king began, "after his old manner, to spoil and waste the country by unreasonable exactions," assisted by Randolf Flambard. Various public buildings, which were erected by Rufus, served as pretexts for demands of money, most of which was applied to satisfy his own private extravagance. In the month of August, 1100, there was held, in the New Forest, a hunting meeting, at which the king was present. This district, where the blackened ruins of villages still remained, where the ground had been watered by the tears and the blood of the miserable inhabitants, murdered or driven from their homes, where the trees grew thickly in commemoration of a deed of cruelty which has but few parallels in history--this gloomy solitude was destined to be the death-scene of Rufus, as it had already been of two other persons of the Conqueror's blood. In the year 1081, Richard, the eldest son of William I., had been accidentally killed in the New Forest; and in May, 1100, Richard, son of Duke Robert and nephew of Rufus, was killed there accidentally by an arrow. In these successive calamities, the people thought they saw a retribution for the crime which had been committed in that place.