of fifteen; and he faced the danger with a promptitude and energy not unworthy of Fulk Nerra’s representative. One after another he besieged the rebel leaders in their strongholds; one after another was forced, tricked or frightened into submission. Once, while besieging Theobald of Blazon in the great fortress of Mirebeau, Geoffrey was blockaded in his turn by the count of Poitou, whom the traitors had called to their aid; even from this peril, however, his quick wit and youthful energy extricated him in triumph; and the revolt was finally crushed by a severe punishment inflicted on its most powerful leader, Lisiard of Sablé. Geoffrey ravaged the whole of Lisiard’s estates, razed his castle of Briolet, seized that of Suze and kept it in his own hands for the rest of its owner’s life; while to guard against further dangers from the same quarter, by the advice of his faithful barons he reared, for the express purpose of defence against incursions from Sablé, a fortress to which he gave the name of Châteauneuf, on the left bank of the Sarthe, just below the bridge made famous by the death of Count Robert the Brave.[643] [640] Ord. Vit. (Duchesne, _Hist. Norm. Scriptt._), pp. 886, 887. [641] Sim. Durh. _Gesta Reg._ a. 1129. [642] _Hist. Gaufr. Ducis_ (Marchegay, _Comtes_), p. 263. [643] For the barons’ revolt, see _Hist. Gaufr. Ducis_ (Marchegay, _Comtes_), pp. 263–268. The strange and not very clear story of the double siege of Mirebeau is in pp. 265, 266. “Exercitus de Mirebello” is recorded in Chronn. S. Albin. and S. Flor. Salm. a. 1130 (Marchegay, _Eglises_, pp. 33, 191). The Chron. S. Albin. also records the building of Châteauneuf, a. 1131; the _Hist. Gaufr. Ducis_, p. 270, connects it with the revolt of a lord of Sablé, but apparently with the later revolt of Lisiard’s son Robert--which, however, the date in the chronicle shows to be a mistake.