at hand goes far to show how mistaken are the
charges of sloth and incapacity which, even in his own day, men
brought against "John Softsword."[36]

He had arranged that a force of three hundred knights, three thousand
mounted men-at-arms, and four thousand foot, under the command of
William the Marshal, with a band of mercenaries under Lou Pescaire,
should march by night from Rouen along the left bank of the Seine, and
fall, under cover of darkness, upon the portion of the French army
which still lay on that side of the river. Meanwhile, seventy
transport vessels, which had been built by Richard to serve either for
sea or river traffic, and as many more boats as could be collected,
were to be laden with provisions for the distressed garrison of the
island fort, and convoyed up the stream by a flotilla of small
warships, manned by "pirates" under a chief named Alan and carrying,
besides their own daring and reckless crews, a force of three thousand
Flemings. Two hundred strokes of the oar, John reckoned, would bring
these ships to the French pontoon; they must break it if they could;
if not, they could at least cooeperate with the Marshal and Lou
Pescaire in cutting off the northern division of the French host from
its comrades and supplies on the left bank, and throw into the island
fort provisions which would enable it to hold out till John himself
should come to its rescue.

One error brought the scheme to ruin, an error neither of strategy nor
of conduct, but of scientific knowledge. John had miscalculated the
time at which, on that night, the Seine would be navigable upstream,
and his counsellors evidently shared his mistake till it was brought
home to them by experience. The land forces achieved their march
without hinderance, and at the appointed hour, shortly before
daybreak, fell upon the French camp with such a sudden and furious
onslaught that the whole of its occupants fled across the pontoon,
which broke under their weight. But the fleet, which had been intended
to arrive at the same time, was unable to make way against the tide,
and before it could reach its destination the French had rallied on
the northern bank, repaired the pontoon, recrossed it in full force,
and routed John's troops. The ships, when they at last came up, thus
found themselves unsupported in their turn, and though they made a
gallant fight they were beaten back with heavy loss. In the flush of
victory one young Frenchman contrived to