The tide had turned once more. Almeric had been won over by a grant of the coveted honour of Evreux; and his defection from Louis was followed by that of all the other rebel Normans in rapid succession. William the Clito--as Duke Robert’s son is called, to distinguish him from his cousin William the Ætheling--was again driven into exile, with his faithful brother-in-law still at his side; a treaty was arranged between Henry and Louis; all castles were to be restored, all captives freed, and all wrongs forgiven and forgotten.[585] [581] Ord. Vit. (as above), p. 851. Eng. Chron. a. 1119. Suger, _Vita Ludov._ c. 21 (_Rer. Gall. Scriptt._, vol. xii. p. 45). Will. Malm. _Gesta Reg._, l. v. c. 419 (Hardy, p. 652). [582] Ord. Vit. as above. [583] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), p. 852. [584] _Ib._ pp. 853–855. See also Eng. Chron. a. 1119, Hen. Hunt., l. vii. c. 31 (Arnold, p. 241), and Suger, _Vita Ludov._, c. 21 (_Rer. Gall. Scriptt._, vol. xii. p. 45). [585] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), pp. 858, 859, 863–866. Cf. Eng. Chron. a. 1120. We seem to be reading the story of Fulk Nerra over again as we are told how his great-grandson, as soon as peace seemed assured and he was reconciled to all his neighbours, desired also by penance for his sins to become reconciled to God, and leaving his dominions in charge of his wife and their two little sons, set out on pilgrimage to Jerusalem.[586] The “lord of three cities,”[587] however, could not leave his territories to take care of themselves as the Black Count seems to have done; the regency of his boys was merely nominal, for the eldest of them was but seven years old; and though their mother, the daughter of Elias, may well have been a wise and courageous woman, it was no light matter thus to leave her alone with the rival kings on each side of her. To guard against all dangers, therefore, Fulk again formally commended the county of Maine to King Henry as overlord during his own life, and bequeathed it to his son-in-law the Ætheling in case he should not return.[588] Two months before his departure, the cathedral of Le Mans, which had just been rebuilt, was consecrated in his presence and that of his wife. At the close of the ceremony he took up his little son Geoffrey in his arms and placed him on the altar, saying with tears: “O holy Julian, to thee I commend my child and my land, that thou mayest be the defender and protector of both!”[589] The yearning which drew him literally to tread in his great-grandfather’s steps was too strong to be repressed; but he went,[590] it is clear, with anxious and gloomy forebodings; and before he reached his home again those forebodings were fulfilled. The treaty that had promised so well was scattered to the winds on November 25, 1120, by the death of William the Ætheling in the wreck of the White Ship.[591] [586] Ord. Vit. (as above), p. 871.