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Page 398
into the main body of Philip's forces. For their carelessness, they were punished by being badly beaten and taking heavy losses. Finally, those remaining disengaged and retreated in decent order. The news carried by the bloody survivors stimulated even more frantic activity. Ferrand said hasty goodbyes and rode off to rejoin his own army, taking with him Dammartin, William of Holland and those knights who had come to join his service, and most of the mercenary troops. Geoffrey completed the loading of the English ships and captured French vessels with all haste and then ordered that the beached vessels be set afire; there was no longer time to refloat them. Even when they were back in England, Geoffrey had his hands full. Salisbury rode at once to bring his brother the good news. Unloading, storage, division of the spoils, and discharge of some of the ships pressed into service, which would be replaced by the captured French vessels, were left in Geoffrey's hands. Then Geoffrey was summoned to court to give an accounting of what he had done.
The problems of one minor French prisoner were pushed out of Geoffrey's mind by the new storm gathering in England. When John had the news of the brilliant success of Salisbury's expedition, he dismissed the army gathered to resist invasion. This was now completely out of the question since Philip's ships and supplies were either in his enemy's hands or burnt to cinders. The news from Flanders in the next weeks remained excellent. Philip withdrew under severe pressure from the coalition of Lowlanders and German duchies under the Emperor Otto that Dammartin had been working for years to establish. There was no doubt that the French king had suffered a heavy reversal, Geoffrey told Joanna when he was finally given permission to return home. Not only was Philip short of men and money, but the confidence of his allies was shaken. It was the perfect time to recapture Normandy and to make good the other losses on the Continent in John's opinion.
"And he is perfectly right," Geoffrey said heavily to Joanna in the privacy of their bedchamber.

 
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