On S. Barnabas’s day--Sunday, June 11--Philip and Richard appeared with their host before Le Mans. They made a feint of passing on in the direction of Tours; but next morning Philip suddenly drew up his forces under the walls and prepared for an assault. The defenders, conscious of the overwhelming odds against them, adopted the desperate remedy of setting fire to the suburbs. Unhappily, the wind carried the flames not into the enemy’s lines but into the city itself.[1258] The French saw their opportunity and rushed at the bridge; a gallant, though unsuccessful, attempt to break it down was made by some of Henry’s troops, headed by a Cenomannian knight, Geoffrey of Brulon, who thus honourably wiped out the memory of his rebellion of sixteen years before; after a desperate fight, Geoffrey was wounded and made prisoner with a number of his comrades, and the rest were driven back into the city, the French rushing in after them.[1259] Then at last Henry felt that he could not keep his promise to the citizens of Le Mans, and with some seven hundred knights he took to flight.[1260] The French hurried in pursuit, but they did not carry it far. It may be that Geoffrey of Brulon’s effort to break down the bridge saved the king although it could not save the city; for the French are said to have been checked in their pursuit by the impossibility of fording the river,[1261] and one can scarcely help conjecturing that the fugitives had crossed by the half-undermined bridge, and that it fell as soon as they had passed over it.[1262] [1258] _Ibid._ R. Diceto (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 63. Gir. Cambr. as above, c. 24 (p. 137). Cf. Will. Newb., l. iii. c. 25 (Howlett, vol. i. p. 277). [1259] _Gesta Hen._ as above. [1260] _Ibid._ Cf. Gerv. Cant. (Stubbs), vol. i. p. 447; R. Diceto and Will. Newb. as above; Gir. Cambr. as above (p. 138); Rigord (Duchesne, _Hist. Franc. Scriptt._, vol. v.), p. 28; and Will. Armor., _Gesta Phil. Aug._ (_ibid._), p. 75. [1261] _Gesta Hen._ (Stubbs), vol. ii. p. 68. [1262] This is suggested by Bishop Stubbs’s remark about “the breaking down of the bridge.” _Rog. Howden_, vol. ii. pref. p. lxii.