In 1376-7 Chaucer was again employed on various secret missions abroad. In April 1377 he was sent to France to treat for peace with Charles V, for which service he received £48 13_s._ 4_d._ In June of this year Edward III died, but for a time John of Gaunt still retained his power, and soon after the accession of the boy king, Richard II, we find Chaucer sent on an embassy to Barnabo Viscounte, God of delyt, and scourge of Lumbardye. (_Monkes Tale_, ll. 408-409.) Amongst those whom he appointed to act for him during his absence, was his friend and fellow-poet, John Gower. In May 1380 occurred a curious incident, of which no full and satisfactory explanation has yet been found. By a deed dated May 1st, one Cecilia de Chaumpaigne releases Geoffrey Chaucer from a charge which she had brought against him _de raptu meo_. It has been suggested (_Camb. Hist. Lit._, Vol. II) that this may refer to one of those attempts to carry off an heir or heiress and marry them forcibly to some relation of the abductor, which were not infrequent at the time. Chaucer's own father had been the victim of such an attempt, being kidnapped in order that he might be married to Joan de Westhale. The case had come before the courts and the jury found that "the defendants had by night forcibly abducted John le Chaucer from the plaintiff's custody, but did not marry him," and assessed the damages at £250. John Chaucer was under fourteen at the time, and there are instances of mere babies of four and five being carried off in the same way. One poor little lady was twice widowed and thrice married before she was nine. Whatever the facts may have been in connection with Cecilia de Chaumpaigne it is evident that Chaucer's influence at court was sufficient to protect him from any unpleasant consequences. A year later (May 1382) to his controllership of wool was added that of petty customs. This probably meant a substantial increase of income, but the poet, who found his original duties sufficiently irksome, does not seem to have looked with favour upon a corresponding increase in office hours. In February 1385 he was granted the privilege of appointing a permanent deputy to perform his official duties. Professor Skeat suggests that the expressions of gratitude towards the queen which are inserted in the later version of the prologue to the _Legend of Good Women_, point to the probability that he owed this unusual concession to her intervention. About this time Chaucer seems to have given up his house over Aldgate and to have moved to Greenwich. The lease of the Aldgate house was made over to a certain Richard Foster in 1386, and in the _Lenvoy a Scogan_ (written probably about 1393) Chaucer contrasts the lot of his friend, ... that knelest at the stremes heed Of grace, of alle honour and worthinesse, with his own fate at the other end of the same stream, Forgete in solitarie wildernesse,