ned and illuminated as it was by the exigencies of
their own struggle with the infidels, had given to the science of
military architecture in the East. During the past year John had added
to his brother's castle a chapel with an undercroft, placed at the
southeastern corner of the second ward. The fortress, which nature and
art had combined to make impregnable, was well stocked with supplies
of every kind; moreover, it was one of the few places in Normandy
which Philip had no hope of winning, and John no fear of losing,
through treason on the part of its commandant. Roger de Lacy, to whom
John had given it in charge, was an English baron who had no stake in
Normandy, and whose personal interest was therefore bound up with that
of the English King; he was also a man of high character and dauntless
courage. Nothing short of a siege of the most determined kind would
avail against the "Saucy Castle"; and on that siege Philip now
concentrated all his forces and all his skill.

As the right bank of the Seine at that point was entirely commanded by
the castle and its neighbor fortification, the walled town--also built
by Richard--known as the New or Lesser Andely, while the river itself
was doubly barred by a stockade across its bed, close under the foot
of the rock, and by a strong tower on an island in midstream just
below the town, he was obliged to encamp in the meadows on the
opposite shore. The stockade, however, was soon broken down by the
daring of a few young Frenchmen; and the waterway being thus cleared
for the transport of materials, he was enabled to construct below the
island a pontoon, by means of which he could throw a portion of his
troops across the river to form the siege of the New Andely, place the
island garrison between two fires, and at once keep open his own
communications and cut off those of the besieged with both sides of
the river alike.

These things seem to have been done toward the end of August. On the
27th and 28th of that month John was at Montfort, a castle some
five-and-twenty miles from Rouen, held by one of his few faithful
barons, Hugh of Gournay. On the 30th, if not the 29th, he and all his
available forces were back at Rouen, ready to attempt on that very
night the relief of Les Andelys. The King's plan was a masterpiece of
ingenuity; and the fact that the elaborate preparations needed for its
execution were made so rapidly and so secretly as to escape detection
by an enemy so close