"
"Whoso is afraid, let him flee!" answered John. "I myself will not
flee for a year; and if indeed it came to fleeing, I should not think
of saving myself otherwise than you would, wheresoever you might be."
"I know that well, sire," replied William; "but you, who are wise and
mighty and of high lineage, and whose work it is to govern us all,
have not been careful to avoid irritating people. If you had, it would
have been better for us all. Methinks I speak not without reason."
The King, "as if a sword had struck him to the heart," spoke not a
word, but rushed to his chamber; next morning he was nowhere to be
found; he had gone away in a boat, almost alone, and it was only at
Bonneville that his followers rejoined him. This was apparently at the
beginning of October, 1203. For two months more he lingered in the
duchy, where his position was growing more hopeless day by day. At the
end of October, or early in November, he took the decisive step of
dismantling Pont de l'Arche, Moulineaux, and Montfort, three castles
which, next to Chateau Gaillard, would be of the greatest value to the
French for an advance upon Rouen. To Rouen itself he returned once
more on November 9th, and stayed there four days.
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