In Aquitaine the respite from trouble won by the diplomacy of Pandulf at the beginning of 1222 lasted through the summer. A safe-conduct to the count of La Marche to come and speak with the King in England was issued in June,[849] and another in August.[850] He was evidently thought to be really coming this time, for the Bishop of Winchester was sent across the sea to meet and escort him;[851] but he did not come. The sentence of excommunication issued against him two years before had never yet been published, but it had never been withdrawn, and the Pope seems to have now directed his commissioners, the Bishops of Saintes and Limoges and the Dean of Bordeaux, to publish it on S. Andrew’s day. The royal Council, however, shrank from driving Hugh to extremity; and early in November they sent Philip of Aubigné and the Abbot of Boxley to make another effort for a peaceful settlement with him and Isabel, and begged the papal commissioners to give him a further respite till the result of these negotiations should appear.[852] Meanwhile the new seneschal of Poitou had taken up his task with a firm and vigorous hand; but he was hampered by the want of money, like his predecessors, and also by the hostility of the towns, which disliked him doubly because he was not only a baron of considerable social and political importance in the land, but also a man of independent character and determined will. He stuck to his post for ten or eleven months, and then, in September or October, went to England. A full discussion of Aquitanian politics and administration seems to have taken place between him and the royal Council, in the presence of representatives from La Rochelle, Niort, S. Jean d’Angély, Bordeaux, the viscount of Thouars, and possibly some other towns and barons; a whole bundle of letters patent and close, issued in consequence of these deliberations, indicate that the Council, conscious of having at last secured a fit man as governor, was now ready to give him all the moral support in its power.[853] Unluckily it had little other support to give him. It was not till February (1223) that Philip d’Aubigné and his fellow commissioner succeeded in coming to any agreement with Hugh of Lusignan; and then the result of their labours was merely another truce, to last till 1st August.[854] Four more months passed; Hugh and Isabel continued impenitent; so on 25th June the Pope again threatened them with excommunication.[855] Three weeks later, however, an event took place which led to another change in the policy of the English government towards the count of La Marche. This was the death, on 14th July,[856] of King Philip Augustus of France. [Sidenote: 1223]