Before Christmas King Philip had returned from the Crusade and was laying snares for Richard, who was still bearing the burden of Christendom in Palestine. The first net was spread for John. John was very much disgusted that the Archbishop of Rouen had secured all the benefits of the late victory over the Chancellor and indignant at being kept in order by his mother. He was ready enough to betray Richard’s interests; he intrigued first with Longchamp, who wanted to return to his see; he accepted bribes in money from both. The whole year 1192 affords nothing but a record of his machinations, which were for the present futile. But when the news of the capture of Richard at Vienna arrived he immediately entered into negotiations with Philip, _bona fide_ on both sides, to secure the crown to himself and to prevent his brother’s return. These manœuvres resulted in open war as soon as the release of Richard was determined on. [Sidenote: Negotiations for Richard’s release. ] We must now return to the fortunes of the captive king, the news of whose imprisonment took all Europe by surprise and shocked all Christendom. It reached England in February, 1193; and the first thing the Justiciar did was to send two abbots to Germany to seek him. They met him at Ochsenfurth, in Bavaria, on his way to Worms, where he was to meet the Emperor on Palm Sunday. Their first negotiations were friendly enough, notwithstanding the alliance which Richard had made with Tancred, and his connection with the Welfic family. An enormous ransom was demanded, but Richard was to have no inconsiderable gift in compensation, that little Provençal kingdom which Frederick had been able to reclaim, but over which Henry possessed scarcely more than nominal sway. Richard was to be made King of Arles. In the meantime he was to resign the crown of England to Henry VI. as lord of the world, and to receive it back again as a tributary fief of the empire; and this our historian says, was done, although the Emperor before his death released him from the obligation. [Sidenote: Delays.] But as soon as Philip and John learned that the transaction was assuming such an amicable shape, they attempted to prevent the Emperor from fulfilling the agreement, and the position of parties within the empire gave them fair hopes of attaining their end. For, in consequence of the murder of the Bishop of Liege, in which the Emperor was somehow implicated, Henry was at open strife with the great barons and lords of the Low Countries. They hampered his action in his wide-reaching schemes of policy; against them he felt the need of having Philip’s aid, and he listened to the overtures of Richard’s enemies. [Sidenote: Rebellion of John. ] [Sidenote: Richard’s ransom. ]