ecause of his misdeeds and
defaults of justice, we hold ourselves unbound, absolved, and delivered
from all bonds, all alliances, obligations, conventions, subjections,
services, and dues whereby we may have been bounden towards him."

[Illustration: THE TOWN AND FORTRESS OF LILLE----164]

This meant war. And it was prompt and sharp on the part of the King of
France, slow and dull on the part of the King of England, who was always
more bent upon the conquest of Scotland than upon defending, on the
Continent, his ally, the Count of Flanders. In June, 1297, Philip the
Handsome, in person, laid siege to Lille, and, on the 13th of August,
Robert, Count of Artois, at the head of the French chivalry, gained at
Furnes, over the Flemish army, a victory which decided the campaign.
Lille capitulated. The English re-enforcements arrived too late, and
served no other purpose but that of inducing Philip to grant the Flemings
a truce for two years. A fruitless attempt was made, with the help of
Pope Boniface VIII., to change the truce into a lasting peace. The very
day on which it expired, Charles, Count of Valois, and brother of Philip
the Handsome, entered Flanders with a powerful army, surprised Douai,
passed through Bruges, and, on arriving at Ghent, gave a reception to its
magistrates, who came and offered him the keys. "The burghers of the
towns of Flanders," says a chronicler of the age, "were all bribed by
gifts or promises from the King of France, who would never have dared to
invade their frontiers, had they been faithful to their count." Guy de
Dampierre, hopelessly beaten, repaired, with two of his sons, and fifty-
one of his faithful knights, to the camp of the Count of Valois, who gave
him a kind reception, and urged him to trust himself to the king's
generosity, promising at the same time to support his suit. Guy set out
for Paris with all his retinue. On approaching the City-palace which was
the usual residence of the kings, he espied at one of the windows Queen
Joan of Navarre, who took a supercilious pleasure in gazing upon the
humiliation of the victim of defeat. Guy drooped his head, and gave no
greeting. When he was close to the steps of the palace, he dismounted
from his horse, and placed himself and all his following at the mercy of
the king. The Count of Valois said a few words in his favor, but Philip,
cutting his brother short, said, addressing himself to Guy, "I desire no
peace with you, and if