e driven back into the castle,
hotly pursued by his troops, who under the guidance of William des
Roches forced their way in after the fugitives, and were in a short
time masters of the place. The whole of the French and Poitevin forces
were either slain or captured; and among the prisoners were the three
Lusignans and Arthur.

Philip was at that moment busy with the siege of Arques; on the
receipt of these tidings he left it and turned southward, but he
failed, or perhaps did not attempt, to intercept John, who, bringing
his prisoners with him, made his way leisurely back to Falaise. There
he imprisoned Arthur in the castle, and despatched his victorious
troops against Arthur's duchy; they captured Dol and Fougeres, and
harried the country as far as Rennes. Philip, after ravaging Touraine,
fired the city of Tours and took the citadel; immediately afterward he
withdrew to his own territories, as by that time John was again at
Chinon. As soon as Philip was gone, John, in his turn, entered Tours
and wrested the citadel from the French garrison left there by his
rival; but his success was won at the cost of another conflagration,
which, an English chronicler declares, was never forgiven him by the
citizens and the barons of Touraine.

For the moment, however, he was in luck. In Aquitaine he seemed in a
fair way to carry all before him without striking a blow. Angouleme
had passed into his hands by the death of his father-in-law on June
17th. Guy of Limoges had risen in revolt again, but at the end of
August or early in September he was captured. The Lusignans, from
their prison at Caen, made overtures for peace, and by dint of
protestations and promises succeeded ere long in regaining their
liberty, of course on the usual conditions of surrendering their
castles and giving hostages for their loyalty. It was almost equally a
matter of course that as soon as they were free they began intriguing
against John. But the chronic intrigues of the south were in
reality--as John himself seems to have discovered--a far less serious
danger than the disaffection in his northern dominions. This last evil
was undoubtedly, so far as Normandy was concerned, owing in great
measure to John's own fault. He had intrusted the defence of the
Norman duchy to his mercenaries under the command of a Provencal
captain--whose real name is unknown--who seems to have adopted for
himself the nickname of _Lou Pescaire_ ("the Fisherman")--which the
Norm