ll parts of Europe to assist in this
expedition, by the pardons and privileges of those who fought for the
Holy Land.

[Sidenote: A.D. 1218.]

This proceeding did not astonish the world. The King of France, having
driven John from all he held on the continent, gladly saw religion
itself invite him to farther conquests. He summoned all his vassals,
under the penalty of felony, and the opprobrious name of
_culvertage_,[82] (a name of all things dreaded by both nations,) to
attend in this expedition; and such force had this threat, and the hope
of plunder in England, that a very great army was in a short time
assembled. A fleet also rendezvoused in the mouth of the Seine, by the
writers of these times said to consist of seventeen hundred sail. On
this occasion John roused all his powers. He called upon all his people
who by the duty of their tenure or allegiance were obliged to defend
their lord and king, and in his writs stimulated them by the same
threats of _culvertage_ which had been employed against him. They
operated powerfully in his favor. His fleet in number exceeded the vast
navy of France; his army was in everything but heartiness to the cause
equal, and, extending along the coast of Kent, expected the descent of
the French forces.

Whilst these two mighty armies overspread the opposite coasts, and the
sea was covered with their fleets, and the decision of so vast an event
was hourly expected, various thoughts arose in the minds of those who
moved the springs of these affairs. John, at the head of one of the
finest armies in the world, trembled inwardly, when he reflected how
little he possessed or merited their confidence. Wounded by the
consciousness of his crimes, excommunicated by the Pope, hated by his
subjects, in danger of being at once abandoned by heaven and earth, he
was filled with the most fearful anxiety. The legates of the Pope had
hitherto seen everything succeed to their wish. But having made use of
an instrument too great for them to wield, they apprehended, that, when
it had overthrown their adversary, it might recoil upon the court of
Rome itself; that to add England to the rest of Philip's great
possessions was not the way to make him humble; and that in ruining John
to aggrandize that monarch, they should set up a powerful enemy in the
place of a submissive vassal.

They had done enough to give them a superiority in any negotiation, and
they privately sent an embassy to the King of Engl