Page:The reign of William Rufus and the accession of Henry the First.djvu/343

 lands back again. An exception, formal or practical, must have been made in the case of Bishop Odo. He certainly was not restored to his earldom of Kent.

The treaty was sworn to by twelve chief men on each side. The English Chronicler remarks, with perfect truth, that it stood but a little while. But one part at least was carried out at once and with great vigour. Within less than a month after William had landed in Normandy to dispossess Robert, he and Robert marched together to dispossess Henry. They spent their Lent in besieging him in his last stronghold. When the Count of Coutances heard of the coalition against him, he made ready for a vigorous resistance. He put his two cities of Coutances and Avranches and his other fortresses into a state of defence, and gathered a force, Norman and Breton, to garrison them. Britanny indeed was the only quarter from which he received any help in his struggle. Those who seemed to be his firmest friends turned against him. Even Earl Hugh of Chester, the foremost man in the land from which his father had taken his name, had no mind to jeopard his great English palatinate for the sake of keeping his paternal Avranches in the obedience of the Ætheling. Henry's other supporters, Richard of Redvers, it is to be supposed, among them, were of the same mind. They saw no hope that Henry could withstand the might, above all the wealth, of Rufus; they accordingly surrendered their fortresses