Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/212

 proceeded to Studland, in Dorsetshire, instead of to Normandy, and, after visiting Dartmouth and Dorchester, abandoned for the moment his purpose. There can be little doubt that the lukewarmness of the nation was the cause of the change of plan, for, soon after his return, John levied large sums of money from the earls, barons, knights, and ecclesiastics who, he alleged, had refused to accompany him.

In the meantime the war was being prosecuted at sea, although few particulars of its progress have been preserved; for it is on record that some sailors of Normandy, who, under Peter de Auxe, had captured one of the enemy's galleys, and apparently retaken an English ship, were, in August, 1205, thanked by the king for their services, and directed to deliver galley, ship, stores, and prisoners to John de Kemes.

It was in the same year that the celebrated adventurer, Eustace the Monk, a thirteenth-century prototype of the far more famous Paul Jones, began to affect the course of English naval history. He was then in the service of John, and he made some kind of capture at sea; for, on November 13th, 1205, the bailiffs of Sandwich were directed to deliver to the Archdeacon of Taunton the money which Eustace the Monk and the men of justice had arrested. In the following year Eustace seems to have made an illegal prize, for all the port bailiffs were directed that, if the Monk did not restore the captured ship of William le Petit to her owner, they were to assist the said Petit in recovering her, wheresoever she might be found.

The king's preparations against France produced more tangible results in 1206. John assembled his fleet and army anew, and, on June 6th or 7th, embarked at Yarmouth, Isle of Wight, and landed