So the spring of 1189 went on, Henry staying mostly at Saumur, in Anjou, or at Chinon; and Philip watching for his opportunity. At length on May 28, after a conference at la Ferté Bernard, in which Henry, as it was said, bribed the papal legate to take his side, Philip finally broke into war; carried almost by surprise the chief castles of Maine, and with a good fortune which he could scarcely realize captured the city of le Mans itself, which Henry, although at the head of a stout force of knights, refused to defend. Wretchedly ill and broken in spirit, he rode for his life from le Mans, to escape from the hands of his son and of Philip. This was on June 12. Le Mans was Henry’s birth-place; there his father was buried, and he had loved the place very much; it was also a very strong place, and when it was taken he knew that sooner or later Tours must go too. But even before Tours was taken all was lost, for Henry seemed to think that he had nothing left to live or fight for. Scarcely able to sit on horseback, he rode all day from le Mans, and rested at night at la Frenaye, on the way to Normandy, where the chief part of his force and all his strength lay. Geoffrey, his natural son and chancellor, afterwards Archbishop of York, was with him, and the poor father clung to him in his despair. To him, through his friend Giraldus Cambrensis, we owe the story of these sad days. [Sidenote: His last days. ] Henry was worn out with illness and fatigue--he would, he said, lie down and die: at night he would not be undressed; Geoffrey threw his cloak on him and watched by his side. In the morning the king declared that he could not leave Anjou; Geoffrey was to go on to Alençon with the troops. He would return to Chinon. Geoffrey was not allowed to depart until the Steward of Normandy had sworn that, should the king die, he would surrender the castles only to John; for Henry did not yet know the treachery of his favorite child. All was done as he bade; Geoffrey secured Alençon and then returned to look for his father; he found him at a place called Savigny, and took him to Chinon, as he wished. For a fortnight Philip pursued his conquests unimpeded. Henry moved again to Saumur, and was there visited by the Counts of Champagne; but he had neither energy, nor apparently even the will, to strike a blow or to come to a decision that would ensure peace. A conference was fixed for June 30, at Azai, but when the day came Henry was too ill to attend; and Philip and Richard went off loudly exclaiming that it was a false excuse. The same day Philip came to Tours. Again the princes interfere; but Philip would not listen. On July 3, he took the city. Then Henry, dying as he was, made his last effort; he was carried from Saumur to Azai, mounted there on horseback, and met his two foes on the plain of Colombieres.