e fourth side of the castle, Evan had taken
possession of a church which stood at some little distance from it,
and had converted the church into a fort. Thus the castle was
completely invested, being watched and guarded on every side. The
garrison, however, would not surrender, hoping that they might receive
succor before their provisions were entirely exhausted. They remained
in this condition for a year and a half, and were at length reduced to
great distress and suffering. Still, the governor of the castle would
not surrender.

It may seem strange that Evan, a knight from Wales, should be fighting
against the English, since Wales had some years before been annexed to
the realm of England. The reason was, that Evan's family had been
driven out of Wales by the cruelties and oppressions of the English.
His father, who had formerly been Prince of Wales, had been beheaded,
and Evan, in his infancy, had been saved by his attendants, who fled
with him to France. There he had been received into the family of the
French king, John, and, after he had grown up, he had fought under
John many years. The older he grew, the more his heart was filled with
resentment against the English, and now he was engaged, heart and
hand, in the attempt to drive them out of France. Of course, the
English considered him a traitor, and they hated him much more than
they did any of the French commanders, of whom nothing else was to be
expected than that they should be enemies to the English, and fight
them always and every where. Evan they considered as in some sense one
of their own countrymen who had turned against them.

There was another circumstance which increased the hatred of the
English against Evan, and that was, that he had taken one of their
knights prisoner, and then refused to ransom him on any terms. The
English offered any sum of money that Evan would demand, or they
offered to exchange for him a French knight of the same rank; but Evan
was inexorable. He would not give up his prisoner on any terms, but
sent him to Paris, and shut him up in a dungeon, where he pined away,
and at length died of misery and despair.

In consequence of these things, a plot was formed in England for
assassinating Evan. A Welshman, by the name of John Lamb, was
appointed to execute it.

John Lamb set out from England, and crossed the Channel to France. He
was a well-educated man, speaking French fluently, and he was well
received every where by the