Neither young Henry nor Geoffrey needed a second bidding. Geoffrey, sent into Aquitaine as a messenger of peace, had carried thither, as a contemporary writer says, not peace but a sword. He and his eldest brother were already in collusion, and instead of executing his father’s commission to the malcontent barons, he had secretly used the opportunity which that commission gave him to renew the alliance between them and the young king, whom they were now eager to set up as duke in Richard’s stead.[183] At the beginning of February[184] the young king set out for Limoges; it seems to have been arranged that his father, with a small force, should travel by another route and join him there later.[185] Geoffrey was there already; the viscount, Aimar, at once joined them, and endeavoured to terrify the burghers of the castle into doing likewise. His threats were emphasized by the neighbourhood of a host of Routiers who seem to have been secretly engaged to be in readiness for a call from Geoffrey.[186] That call Geoffrey now gave, and one body of these ruffians, with some of his own vassals, swooped down from Britanny upon Poitou and began plundering and burning the demesnes of the count, who retaliated by making similar raids into Britanny, “and if any man of that troop fell into his clutches, that man’s head was cut off without respect of persons.”[187] Another body of Routiers had come up from Gascony under a certain Raymond “Brunus, or Brenuus” at the call of Aimar, and were with him engaged on February 12 at Gorre, some few miles south of Limoges, in besieging a church—probably fortified by the villagers for use as a place of refuge—when the duke fell suddenly upon them. From a castle somewhere beyond Poitiers he had ridden for two days almost without stopping; his force was small, but the enemies were caught at unawares; many of them were made prisoners; a nephew of their commander, Raymond, was laid low by Richard’s own hand; Aimar and the rest of the band escaped only because the horses of the Poitevins were too exhausted for pursuit.[188]