[778] “Appropinquante autem nativitate S. Johannis Baptistæ, Ricardus de Luci magnum congregavit exercitum et obsedit castellum de Huntendoniâ.” _Gesta Hen._ as above, p. 70. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 60, substitutes for the first words “in festo Nativitatis S. Johannis.” This is the first time that either writer mentions the siege, but see R. Diceto as above, p. 376. [779] _Gesta Hen._ as above, p. 71. [780] “Johannes Senex.” [781] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 155, 156. The story is there told in connexion with that of the murder of a brother of the earl of Ferrers in 1177, and said to have happened “three years before.” The wording of the latter part, where it is said that John “obtulit quingentas marcas argenti _domino regi_ ... sed ... noluit denarios illos accipere, et præcepit ut judicium de eo fieret,” seems to imply that the king himself came to England between the capture of Bucquinte and the execution of John. In that case the date of the affair would be about June or July 1174. Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 131, mentions the hanging of John Oldman, but puts it after the murder of De Ferrers in 1177 and omits the whole story which in the _Gesta_ intervenes, thereby also omitting to shew the true sequence of events and chronology. [782] R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 381.