[834] The treaty, as given in _Gesta Hen._ and Rog. Howden (see above, note 5{832}), is printed also in Rymer’s _Fœdera_, vol. i. p. 30, with the addition of a date--Falaise--and the signatures of twenty-eight witnesses. Among the latter is Geoffrey, bishop elect of Lincoln. Now we know from R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 393, that Geoffrey came over from England to Normandy on October 8. R. Diceto (_ib._ p. 394) gives the date of the meeting at which the treaty was made as October 11. Is it not probable that he has substituted for the date of the making of the treaty that of its formal ratification at Falaise? [835] This treaty, as given in _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. i. pp. 96–99, and Rog. Howden (Stubbs), vol. ii. pp. 80–82 (and from them in Rymer’s _Fœdera_, vol. i. pp. 30, 31), is dated at Falaise. R. Diceto, however (Stubbs, vol. i. p. 396), who gives an abridgement of it, says it was made at Valognes, on December 8. Now there is in Hearne’s _Liber Niger_, vol. i. pp. 36–40, a copy of the treaty, differing from the former ones in having eighteen more witnesses (one cannot help noting the name of the last--“Roger Bacun”) and in its date, which is “Valognes.” No doubt the Falaise copy was made first, and this is the ratification of it. [836] R. Diceto as above, p. 398. By the terms of Henry’s treaty with France, all the English barons who held lands on both sides of the sea were to be at once re-instated in their continental possessions, except the castles over which the king resumed his ancient rights of garrison or of demolition. Their English estates however were wholly at his mercy; but he made a very gentle use of his power over them. He took in fact no personal vengeance at all; he exacted simply what was necessary for securing his own authority and the peace of the realm--the instant departure of the Flemish mercenaries[837] and the demolition of unlicensed fortifications--and for defraying the expenses of the war. This was done by a tax levied partly on the royal demesnes, partly on the estates of the rebels throughout the country, on the basis of an assessment made for that purpose during the past summer by the sheriffs of the several counties, assisted by some officers of the Exchequer.[838] No ruinous sums were demanded; even Hugh Bigod escaped with a fine of a thousand marks, and lost none of the revenues of his earldom save for the time that he was actually in open rebellion; the third penny of Norfolk was reckoned as due to him again from the third day after his surrender, and its amount for two months was paid to him accordingly at Michaelmas.[839] Even the earls of Leicester and Chester seem to have been at once set free;[840] and in little more than two years they were restored to all their lands