crossed the Loir higher up and swept round to the southward through the territories of Anjou, thus putting the river between himself and his enemies. The movement naturally drew Fulk back across the river to defend his own land against the Norman invader.[524] The two armies drew up facing each other on a wide moor or heath stretching along the left bank of the Loir between La Flèche and Le Lude, and overgrown with white reindeer-moss, whence it took the name of Blanchelande. No battle however took place; some clergy who were happily at hand stepped in as mediators, and after a long negotiation peace was arranged. The count of Anjou again granted the investiture of Maine to Robert of Normandy, and, like his predecessor, received the young man’s homage to himself as overlord.[525] Like the treaty of Alençon, the treaty of Blanchelande was a mere formal compromise; William kept it a dead letter by steadily refusing to make over Maine to his son, and holding it as before by the right of his own good sword. A few years later Fulk succeeded in accomplishing his vengeance upon John of La Flèche by taking and burning his castle;[526] but the expedition seems to have been a mere border-raid, and so long as William lived neither native patriotism nor Angevin meddlesomeness ventured again to question his supremacy over Maine. [520] _Gesta Amb. Domin._ (Marchegay, _Comtes_), p. 175 _et seq._ [521] _Acta Pontif. Cenoman._ c. 33 (Mabillon, _Vet. Anal._, p. 308). [522] Eng. Chron. a. 1074. [523] See note D at end of chapter. [524] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 533. See note E at end of chapter. [525] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 533. [526] Chron. S. Albin. a. 1081 (Marchegay, _Eglises_, p. 26). See note E at end of chapter.