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in Louis's tail were poor men. They had come to England to seize lands for themselves, not to rid the English of an unwanted king. |
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Men who had changed sides once, changed sides again. John had signed Magna Carta, after all, and he had tried to live by itat least more than Vesci and Fitz Walter, who had brought this plague of Frenchmen down upon England, had done. Of course, John had betrayed them by asking the pope to annul the signing. But that was John. Better the devil they knew than this new devil, who had all the hungry maws of his own men to fill and nothing to fill them with but the land of Englishmen. Feelers were sent out and were well received by the king. |
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By mid-September, John felt it was worthwhile to begin a campaign. He marched out and down the valley of the Thames, drawing the besiegers away from Windsor and then, with the help of the garrison which poured out to support him, drubbed them soundly. The king then turned north to Lincoln and relieved the siege of that castle, where Nicolaa had held out valiantly after her defiance. By October 8, John had moved across eastward to Lynn. There he was welcomed without any battle, and the royal forces paused to consider where next to strike. On October 10, the king was not well. He had a severe flux of the bowels. They waited one day more, but even though he grew no better, John was impatient to move south. They moved on to Wisbech. |
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On the twelfth of October, a catastrophe befell John and his supporters. The baggage train with the entire treasury, the crown jewelseverythingwas overtaken by an unusually swift incoming tide as they crossed the Wellstream estuary. Everything was lost! Everything! |
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The king and his suite rushed in on their more powerful horses, thinking to save something of the treasure. A few men were drowned, all were soaked through and plastered with the mire of the swamp. They saved nothing; they nearly lost the king, dragging him away by force when his horse was near helpless in the quicksand. Even after that, John would not leave. Racked with dysentery and chill, he |
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