'Many of those who knew his story,' comments Matthew Paris, in his delightful, gossiping way, 'were convinced that this lot befell the Emperor in consequence of his sin.' 'And all those who had promoted it by their advice,' he adds, 'in like manner came to a terrible end.' 'One of these men, when he returned home to his wife, and had been recognized by her, was cast headlong into a well. She privily procuring the same because in her lord's absence she had wedded another man, and had borne him children.' 'So too of the rest. By some mishap or other they all of them perished miserably, for the wrath of God, who willeth not that evil should be rendered for good, was fiercely enkindled against them.' CHAPTER XII _The Love Story of Bourchard d'Avesnes_ Before proceeding further with the story of Bruges, it will be necessary to go back to the time when Baldwin first disappeared from men's view (1205), blotted out by the thick mist of conjecture which clung round the bastions of Adrianople, and to note the course of events in Flanders from that date until the day of his unlooked-for home-coming twenty years later (1225). The mysterious exit of the Emperor had left his patrimony in hazardous plight. Jeanne, his heiress and eldest daughter, was not yet fifteen years old; her sister Marguerite was still in her cradle; Philip, Marquis of Namur, whom Baldwin before setting out for the East had appointed their guardian, was a man unworthy of trust, and the redoubtable Philip Augustus was shaping the destiny of France. Too shrewd to let slip so favourable a moment for strengthening his hold on Flanders, the French King at once laid claim as suzerain to the wardship of the infant princesses, and the Marquis of Namur,[20] bribed by the promise of a royal alliance, fell in with his kinsman's designs, and presently dispatched them to France. In face of the storm of indignation aroused by so flagrant a breach of trust, Philip was constrained to hand over the reins of government to his co-trustee, Bourchard d'Avesnes, the son of the illustrious friend of Richard Coeur de Lion, and the chief of the Nationalist or anti-French party. But it was only after five years' negotiation, and a threat to throw himself into the arms of England, that at length Bourchard was enabled to obtain his wards' release, and before King Philip would suffer their return to Flanders, he took care to bestow Jeanne's hand on his kinsman Ferdinand of Portugal, a prince whom he deemed would be wax in his hands.