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 were lost. The body of De Boyes himself drifted ashore near Yarmouth. Up and down the coast the beach was covered with corpses, among which were those of women, and of infants in their cradles; and the air was rendered pestilent.

In the course of the same year, Eustace the Monk, aided or abetted by William de Abrincis, made a hostile descent upon Folkestone; but whether this was before or after the concession of Magna Charta is uncertain. Nor is much light thrown upon the question by the fact that, on June 21st, 1215, John ordered the Abbess of Wilton to deliver to Eustace his daughter, who had been held as a hostage.

The king spent part of the autumn at Sandwich and Dover, and, according to Matthew Paris, sought to ingratiate himself with the seamen of the Cinque Ports. About November, he ordered that a ship of Boulogne, which had been taken by Roger de Loveney, should be restored, together with her gear and crew.

The year 1216 saw the end of the struggle. The king issued orders prohibiting vessels from trading to and from Scotland, and other dominions of his enemies; and in April he called upon Rye, and probably upon other towns also, to send all vessels there to the mouth of the Thames, and to inform him concerning other ships belonging to the port. But the royal cause, so far as it was embodied in the person of John, was plainly lost. No one who was beyond the reach of his arm heeded him. His Narrow Seas were left unguarded against his enemies, and the cruisers of Prince Louis of France, under the command of Eustace the Monk, appear to have enjoyed undisputed liberty in the Channel. Even when the Crown of England was offered by the barons to Louis, and when the succession seemed about to pass to aliens, and the country about to become an appanage of France, John could rally neither navy nor army to his side.

Eustace the Monk collected six hundred ships and eighty cogs