ans apparently corrupted into "Louvrekaire"--and who habitually
treated his employer's peaceable subjects in a fashion in which other
commanders would have shrunk from treating avowed enemies. Side by
side with the discontent thus caused among the people there was a
rapid growth of treason among the Norman barons--treason fraught with
far greater peril than the treason of the nobles of Aquitaine, because
it was more persistent and more definite in its aim; because it was at
once less visible and tangible and more deeply rooted; because it
spread in silence and wrought in darkness; and because, while no
southern rebel ever really fought for anything but his own hand, the
northern traitors were in close concert with Philip Augustus. John
knew not whom to trust; he could, in fact, trust no one; and herein
lay the explanation of his restless movements, his unaccountable
wanderings, his habit of journeying through byways, his constant
changes of plan. Moreover, besides the Aquitanian rebels, the Norman
traitors, and the French enemy, there were the Breton partisans of
Arthur to be reckoned with. These had now found a leader in William
des Roches, who, when he saw that he could not prevail upon John to
set Arthur at liberty, openly withdrew from the King's service and
organized a league of the Breton nobles against him.

These Bretons, reinforced by some barons from Anjou and Maine,
succeeded, on October 29, 1202, in gaining possession of Angers. It
may have been to watch for an opportunity of dislodging them that
John, who was then at Le Mans, went to spend a fortnight at Saumur and
another at Chinon. Early in December, however, he fell back upon
Normandy, and while the intruders were harrying his ancestral counties
with fire and sword, he kept Christmas with his Queen at Caen, "faring
sumptuously every day, and prolonging his morning slumbers till
dinner-time." It seems that shortly afterward the Queen returned to
Chinon, and that in the middle of January, 1203, the enemies at Angers
were discovered to be planning an attempt to capture her there. John
hurried to Le Mans, only stopping at Alencon to dine with Count Robert
and endeavor to secure his suspected loyalty by confirming him in all
his possessions. No sooner had they parted, however, than Robert rode
off to the French court, did homage to Philip, and admitted a French
garrison into Alencon. While John, thus placed between two fires, was
hesitating whether to go on o