[681] R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 367. He says they were drowned because the bridge was “a quâdam mulierculâ effractus.” [682] _Gesta Hen._ (as above), p. 45. [683] “Rex pater eo tempore morabatur Rothomagi, ut populo videbatur æquo animo ferens quæ fiebant in terrâ; frequentius solito venatui totus indulgens” [see extracts from Pipe Roll 1173 illustrating this, in Eyton, _Itin. Hen. II._, p. 173]; “venientibus ad se vultum hylaritatis prætendens, aliquid extorquere volentibus patienter respondens.” R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 373, 374. Cf. Jordan Fantosme, vv. 118, 119 (Michel, p. 6). [684] R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 366–368. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 243, 245. [685] R. Diceto (as above), p. 367. [686] Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 47. He says Henry wrote “_imperatoribus_ et regibus,” which we must take to include the Eastern Emperor. [687] Letter in _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 55, note 2; Rog. Howden (as above), p. 48. [688] Rog. Howden (as above), p. 47. Cf. Will. Newb., l. ii. c. 27 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 172). The latter does not mention their number; Jordan Fantosme, v. 67 (Michel, p. 4) makes it only ten thousand; the _Gesta Hen._ (as above), p. 51, says “plus quam decem millia.” [689] I suppose this to be the meaning of Geoff. Vigeois, l. i. c. 67 (Labbe, _Nova Biblioth._, vol. ii. p. 319): “Adeo Rex multis thesauris exhaustis nauseatus est, ut Brabantionibus qui ei parebant pro mercede Spatham regiæ coronæ in gagium mitteret.” Early in June Robert of Leicester and William of Tancarville, the high-chamberlain of Normandy, sought license from the justiciars in London to join the king at Rouen. Immediately on landing, however, they hastened not to Henry II., but to his son.[690] The justiciar himself, Richard de Lucy, was in such anxiety that he seems to have had some thoughts of going in person to consult with the king.[691] The consultation however was to be held not in Normandy but in England. In the last days of June or the first days of July, while the counts of Flanders and Boulogne were easily overcoming the mock resistance of Aumale and Driencourt, and Louis of France was laying siege to Verneuil,[692] Henry suddenly crossed the sea, made his way as far inland as Northampton, where he stayed four days, collected his treasure and his adherents, issued his instructions for action against the rebels, and was back again at Rouen so quickly that neither friends nor foes seem ever to have discovered his absence.[693]