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Page 401
or later we will go, and if we lose John will be bitterly blamedand it will not be his fault."
For the next few months, however, it did not look as if there would be much chance for John to achieve his purpose. The king took the first rebuff of his barons with amazing calm. Instead of thundering threats and denunciations, he did all in his power to remove their objections. He urgently summoned the archbishop of Canterbury and the exiled bishops to come home and absolve him of excommunication, sending assurances that they would be safe and restitution would be made. On July 16, Stephen Langton landed at Dover. The king met him and fell prostrate at his feet. The archbishop lifted him and kissed him. Within a few days the formalities were completed. John was absolved of all sin and renewed his coronation oath. All was sweetness and light.
Again John called a great council to be held at St. Albans on August 4. Between July 21 when the summons went out and the actual convening of the council, John made all the arrangements for governing England while he was absent in France and recalled his barons to war service. They came, but they had conceived a new device for frustrating the king's purpose. They complained that the long period they had spent guarding against invasion had impoverished them. They would go to France with the king, but only if he paid their expenses.
Now the velvet glove slipped a little. His differences with the Church settled, John felt he had a strong ally. Nonetheless, he was reasonable. He said that he was more impoverished than his nobles. He had contributed to their expenses while they waited for Philip on Barham Down; he was strained to the uttermost paying restitution to the Church while they had benefited from the Church funds he had taken to spare them the expense of the Welsh war. Most important, they owed him service by the law and custom of feudal tenure, and he would not yield to their extortion.
At this point, Ian sent Alinor and little Simon home to Roselynde. It was not easily accomplished. Alinor was

 
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