ouncil, confiscated, on account of his treason, all Prince
John's possessions in England; and they assisted the king in reducing
the fortresses which still remained in the hands of his brother's
adherents [y]. Richard, having settled every thing in England, passed
over with an army into Normandy; being impatient to make war on
Philip, and to revenge himself for the many injuries which he had
received from that monarch [z]. As soon as Philip heard of the king's
deliverance from captivity, he wrote to his confederate John in these
terms: TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF: THE DEVIL IS BROKEN LOOSE [a].
[FN [y] Hoveden, p. 737. Ann. Waverl. p. 165. W. Heming, p. 540.
[z] Hoveden, p. 740. [a] Ibid. p. 739.]

[MN War with France.]
When we consider such powerful and martial monarchs inflamed with
personal animosity against each other, enraged by mutual injuries,
excited by rivalship, impelled by opposite interests, and instigated
by the pride and violence of their own temper; our curiosity is
naturally raised, and we expect an obstinate and furious war,
distinguished by the greatest events, and concluded by some remarkable
catastrophe. Yet are the incidents which attend those hostilities so
frivolous that scarce any historian can entertain such a passion for
military descriptions as to venture on a detail of them: a certain
proof of the extreme weakness of princes in those ages, and of the
little authority they possessed over their refractory vassals! The
whole amount of the exploits on both sides is, the taking of a castle,
the surprise of a straggling party, a rencounter of horse, which
resembles more a rout than a battle. Richard obliged Philip to raise
the siege of Verneuil; he took Loches, a small town in Anjou: he made
himself master of Beaumont, and some other places of little
consequence; and after these trivial exploits, the two kings began
already to hold conferences for an accommodation. Philip insisted
that, if a general peace were concluded, the barons on each side
should, for the future, be prohibited from carrying on private wars
against each other: but Richard replied, that this was a right claimed
by his vassals, and he could not debar them from it. After this
fruitless negotiation, there ensued an action between the French and
English cavalry at Fretteval, in which the former were routed, and the
King of France's cartulary and records, which commonly at that time
attended his person, were taken. But this vic