surrounded him in his English realm. It was, however, to the Continent that he mainly looked for aid. “After much reflection,” says Roger of Wendover, “he chose, like the Apostle Peter, to seek vengeance upon his enemies by means of two swords, that is, by a spiritual sword and a material one, so that if he could not triumph by the one, he might safely count upon doing so by the other.”[1071] The spiritual weapon was the first to be actually drawn; but even before its first stroke fell, swords of the other kind were making ready for the king’s service. Emissaries from him were soon busy in “all the neighbouring lands beyond the sea,” gathering troops by promises of rich pay and ample endowments in English land, to be confirmed by charters if the recipients desired it.[1072] The chancellor, Richard Marsh, was thus raising troops in Aquitaine {August};[1073] Hugh de Boves was doing the like in Flanders. Those whom they enlisted were to be ready to come to the king at Dover by Michaelmas Day.[1074] John was also seeking allies in France. On August 12 he wrote to Count Peter of Britanny, offering him a grant of the honour of Richmond if he would come “with all speed, and with all the knights he could bring,” ready for service against the insurgents in England.[1075] He is even said to have tried hard, “by enormous promises,” to gain help from Philip Augustus; but in this quarter “others had been beforehand with him,” says the chronicler significantly.[1076] It was not without a cause that the barons at Runnimead had refused to write themselves John’s liegemen. Within the realm, the royal castles were being revictualled and made ready to stand a siege at any moment.[1077] As yet no further attempt had been made upon any of them; but in the north the barons, or their followers and partizans, had begun to lay waste the royal manors and overrun the forests, cutting down and selling the timber, and killing the deer. Again the archbishop and bishops came forward as peacemakers, and it was arranged that the king should meet them on August 16 at Oxford, while the barons should assemble at Brackley, there to await the result of the churchmen’s mediation. When the day arrived, however, the king was still in Wiltshire, and excused his absence on the ground that he had been so ill-treated since the conclusion of the peace, and moreover at the last conference the barons had come together in such menacing array, that he deemed it neither safe nor prudent to risk himself in their midst; an excuse which was practically justified by the action of the barons themselves, who, instead of waiting at Brackley as they had agreed to do, came “with a numerous following” to meet the bishops at Oxford.[1078]