Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/283

A.D. 1217.] Elated with this success, the count marched to Lincoln, and being admitted within the walls, proceeded at once to attack the castle, which he soon reduced to great extremity. Fully sensible of the importance of relieving the place, the gallant Pembroke summoned all his forces from every quarter of the kingdom which owned the authority of Henry; and with such alacrity wore his orders obeyed, that in a short time he marched upon Lincoln with an army superior in numbers to the French, who, in their turn, shut themselves within the walls. The earl reinforced the garrison, which made a vigorous assault upon the besiegers, whilst, with his own army, he, at the same time, attacked the town, which the English entered, sword in hand, bearing down all opposition. Lincoln was given up to pillage, the French being totally defeated.

It is singular that the only persons slain were the Count de la Perche and two of his officers, but many of the principal leaders and upwards of 400 knights were taken prisoners; and yet this battle, if it may be considered worthy of the name, decided the fate of the kingdom.

Louis heard of this event, so fatal to his ambitious projects, while engaged in the siege of Dover, which, under the command of Hubert de Burgh, still held out against him, and instantly retreated to London, the stronghold of his party. Shortly after his arrival, intelligence was brought him of a fresh disaster, which completely put an end to his hopes of the conquest of England.

His consort, Blanche of Castile, had levied powerful reinforcements in France, which she had embarked in eighty large vessels, besides galleys and smaller ships, under the command of a noted pirate named Eustace le Moine.

To meet this formidable danger, Hubert de Burgh, the justiciary, collected forty sail from the cinque ports, and set out to sea to meet the enemy. So inferior was his force that several knights refused to follow him, alleging as a reason, or rather au excuse for their cowardice, that they were unacquainted with naval warfare, and bound only to fight on land by the tenure of their lands. The gallant leader seems to have been perfectly aware of the danger he courted, since, according to Lingard, he privately received the sacrament, and nobly gave orders to the garrison of Dover Castle not to surrender on any terms to the enemy, in the event of his being defeated—not even to save his own life, should it be threatened.

It was on this occasion that Hubert executed one of those extraordinary feats which only true genius can conceive. On coming in sight of the French fleet, he commanded his own ships to sail past them, as if he intended to surprise Calais. The enemy saw him pass them with shouts of derision.

To their astonishment, however, the English fleet suddenly tacked, and, with the wind in their favour, bore down upon them in a line on their rear. The battle began with volleys of arrows, which, most probably, did little execution on either side. It was when they came in close contact that the superiority of the British sailors was shown. With chains and hooks they lashed their vessels to those of the enemy; then scattered clouds of quicklime in the air, which the wind carried in the eyes of the French, half blinding them, and rendered their ships unmanageable by cutting their rigging with their axes.

The struggle was not a long one. The French, unused to this desperate mode of fighting, made but a feeble resistance; and of their immense fleet fifteen vessels only escaped, the rest being either sunken or taken.

One hundred and fifteen knights, with then: esquires, and upwards of 800 officers, were prisoners. Eustace le Moine, their leader, had concealed himself in the hold of his ship. When discovered he offered a large sum for his life; but Richard Fitzroy, one of John's illegitimate sons by a daughter of Earl Warrenne, rejected the proposal, and instantly struck off his head, which was afterwards stuck upon a pole and carried from town to town as a trophy of victory.

Hume, in his account of this great naval battle, assigns the command of the fleet to Philip d'Albiney; whilst Lingard, who is generally so accurate with respect to names and dates, distinctly states that Hubert de Burgh held that important post. It is more than probable that both the above-mentioned leaders were on board; in which case the supreme authority would have been in the hands of Hubert, as grand justiciary of the kingdom. In our own views, we incline to the last-named historian's account of the event.

After this signal triumph the barons who still adhered to the cause of Louis hastened to make their peace, in order to prevent the attainders which longer resistance might have brought upon them; and the French prince, seeing that his affairs were desperate, began to feel anxious for the safety of his person, and most desirous of withdrawing from a contest where everything wore a hostile aspect to him. He concluded a treaty with the Earl of Pembroke, by which he promised to quit the kingdom, merely stipulating an indemnity to the adherents who remained faithful to him, a restitution of their honours and fortunes, as well as the enjoyment of those liberties which had been granted in the late charter to the rest of the nation.

Thus, owing to the great prudence and loyalty of the regent, was ended a civil war which at one time threatened to subjugate England to a foreign yoke.

The precautions which the King of France, the father of Louis, took in the affair, are most remarkable. He asserted that the prince had accepted the invitation of the English barons without his advice, and contrary to his wishess; the forces sent to England were all levied in the name of Louis, and when he came over to France to solicit aid, his father publicly refused him the least assistance, and would not so much as receive him in his presence; and after the successes of Henry had placed the heir to his throne in a position of great danger, it was Blanche of Castile, his wife, and not the king his father, who raised the forces and equipped the fleet which Hubert de Burgh defeated.

These artifices were too transparent not to be Been through. But the politic monarch was better pleased that the truth should be veiled under a decent pretext than exposed to the gaze of the world. Neither the Pope nor the English nation were deceived by his professions of neutrality.

After the expulsion of the French, the prudence and equity of the protector's subsequent conduct contributed to cure entirely those wounds which had been made by intestine discord. He received the rebellious barons into favour;