set fire to the island fort;
it surrendered, and the whole population of the New Andely fled in a
panic to Chateau Gaillard, leaving their town to be occupied by
Philip.

The Saucy Castle itself still remained to be won. Knowing, however,
that for this nothing was likely to avail but a blockade, which was
now practically formed on two sides by his occupation of the island
fort and the Lesser Andely, Philip on the very next day set off to
make another attempt on Radepont, whence he had been driven away by
John a year before. This time John made no effort to dislodge him. It
was not worth while; the one thing that mattered now was Chateau
Gaillard. Thither Philip, after receiving the surrender of Radepont,
returned toward the end of September, 1203, to complete the blockade.

No second attempt to relieve it was possible. It may have been for the
purpose of endeavoring to collect fresh troops from the western
districts, which were as yet untouched by the war, that John about
this time visited his old county of Mortain, and even went as far as
Dol, which his soldiers had taken in the previous year. But his
military resources in Normandy were exhausted; the Marshal bluntly
advised him to give up the struggle. "Sire," said William, "you have
not enough friends; if you provoke your enemies to fight, you will
diminish your own force; and when a man provokes his enemies, it is
but just if they make him rue it."

"Whoso is afraid, let him flee!" answered John. "I myself will not
flee for a year; and if indeed it came to fleeing, I should not think
of saving myself otherwise than you would, wheresoever you might be."

"I know that well, sire," replied William; "but you, who are wise and
mighty and of high lineage, and whose work it is to govern us all,
have not been careful to avoid irritating people. If you had, it would
have been better for us all. Methinks I speak not without reason."

The King, "as if a sword had struck him to the heart," spoke not a
word, but rushed to his chamber; next morning he was nowhere to be
found; he had gone away in a boat, almost alone, and it was only at
Bonneville that his followers rejoined him. This was apparently at the
beginning of October, 1203. For two months more he lingered in the
duchy, where his position was growing more hopeless day by day. At the
end of October, or early in November, he took the decisive step of
dismantling Pont de l'Arche, Moulineaux, and Montfort, three castles