. At
the end of the month the opportunity came.

At the conclusion of the treaty in May, 1200, Arthur, after doing
homage to his uncle for Brittany, had been by him restored to the
guardianship of the French King. The death of the boy's mother in
September, 1201, left him more than ever exposed to Philip's
influence; and it was no doubt as a measure of precaution, in view of
the approaching strife between the kings, that John on March 27, 1202,
summoned his "beloved nephew Arthur" to come and "do right" to him at
Argentan at the octave of Easter. The summons probably met with no
more obedience than did Philip's summons to John; and before the end
of April Philip had bound Arthur securely to his side by promising him
the hand of his infant daughter Mary. This promise was ratified by a
formal betrothal at Gournay, after the capture of that place by the
French; at the same time Philip made Arthur a knight, and gave him the
investiture of all the Angevin dominions except Normandy.

Toward the end of July Philip despatched Arthur, with a force of two
hundred French knights, to join the Lusignans in an attack on Poitou.
The barons of Brittany and of Berry had been summoned to meet him at
Tours, but the only allies who did meet him there were three of the
Lusignans and Savaric de Mauleon, with some three hundred knights.
Overruling the caution of the boy-duke, who wished to wait for
reinforcements from his own duchy, the impetuous southerners urged an
immediate attack upon Mirebeau, their object being to capture Queen
Eleanor,[33] who was known to be there, and whom they rightly regarded
as the mainstay of John's power in Aquitaine. Eleanor, however, became
aware of their project in time to despatch a letter to her son,
begging him to come to her rescue. He was already moving southward
when her courier met him on July 30th as he was approaching Le Mans.
By marching day and night he and his troops covered the whole distance
between Le Mans and Mirebeau--eighty miles at the least--in
forty-eight hours, and appeared on August 1, 1202, before the besieged
castle. The enemies had already taken the outer ward and thrown down
all the gates save one, deeming their own valor a sufficient safeguard
against John's expected attack. So great was their self-confidence
that they even marched out to meet him. Like most of those who at one
time or another fought against John, they underrated the latent
capacities of their adversary. They wer