If he was the Count his country needed him sorely, for the King of France, Philip Augustus, had during his twenty years' absence all but made Flanders a French province. When it became clear that Baldwin was either dead or a prisoner of the pagans Philip had seized his two daughters--Jeanne being then a girl of fourteen, and Margaret still in her cradle--claiming their wardship as the dead Count's suzerain. Five years he kept them, nor did he permit them to return till he had married Jeanne to a kinsman of his own, Ferdinand of Portugal, who he thought would be a mere puppet in his hands. Ferdinand, however, proved to be a man of determination and resisted Philip's seizure of St. Omer and Aire, two Flemish towns. Philip invaded Flanders with a great army, capturing Cassel and destroying Damme and all the merchandise stored there, Lille, Courtrai and many smaller towns. Ferdinand, unable to resist the superior forces of Philip single-handed, brought about an alliance with King John of England. The battle of Bouvines shattered this alliance, and for twelve years Ferdinand languished in a French prison, while King John was forced to grant the Magna Carta to his English subjects. Thus a victory for tyranny in Flanders resulted indirectly in a greater victory for the cause of freedom in England. Jeanne, while her husband was in prison, was the titular Countess of Flanders, but Philip kept her completely under the influence of his counsellors. Margaret, meanwhile, had been married, but her husband was unable to make head against the far-reaching power of the King of France. It was under these circumstances that the hermit who men thought resembled Count Baldwin came on the stage. If he was an impostor his _coup_ was shrewdly planned, for Jeanne was as hated by the Flemings as her father had been loved. If he was really the good Count and the Emperor his arrival in Flanders seemed to that distracted country like a direct interposition of Providence. A great delegation from Valenciennes went out to the forest and hailed him as their Count and then he at last admitted that he was indeed Baldwin of Constantinople. His tale was a strange one, but more easily believed in those wild days than it would be now. He had, he asserted, been wounded before Adrianople and made a prisoner by the Bulgarians. While a captive a Bulgarian princess saw him, fell in love, and contrived to effect his escape after he had promised to marry her. Once free, however, he repented of his pledge to marry an infidel, and murdered his benefactress. This wicked deed was quickly followed by his recapture by the barbarians, who made him a slave and even a beast of burden. Escaping at last, after many years, he had become a hermit in penance for his great sin.