Chronicle and Romance | Page 7

and rencounters; wherefore your men, an ye had more, shall
stand you in good stead: and, sir, without any further slaying ye shall
be lord of this town; men and women will put all that they have to your
pleasure.' Then the king said: 'Sir Godfrey, you are our marshal, ordain
everything as ye will.' Then sir Godfrey with his banner rode from
street to street, and commanded in the king's name none to be so hardy
to put fire in any house, to slay any person, nor to violate any woman.
When they of the town heard that cry, they received the Englishmen
into their houses and made them good cheer, and some opened their
coffers and bade them take what them list, so they might be assured of
their lives; howbeit there were done in the town many evil deeds,
murders and robberies. Thus the Englishmen were lords of the town
three days and won great riches, the which they sent by barks and
barges to Saint-Saviour by the river of Austrehem,[3] a two leagues
thence, whereas all their navy lay. Then the king sent the earl of
Huntingdon with two hundred men of arms and four hundred archers,
with his navy and prisoners and riches that they had got, back again
into England. And the king bought of sir Thomas Holland the constable
of France and the earl of Tancarville, and paid for them twenty
thousand nobles.
[3] Froissart says that they sent their booty in barges and boats 'on the
river as far as Austrehem, a two leagues from thence, where their great
navy lay.' He makes no mention of Saint-Sauveur here. The river in
question is the Orne, at the mouth of which Austrehem is situated.

HOW SIR GODFREY OF HARCOURT FOUGHT WITH THEM OF
AMIENS BEFORE PARIS
Thus the king of England ordered his business, being in the town of
Caen, and sent into England his navy of ships charged with clothes,
jewels, vessels of gold and silver, and of other riches, and of prisoners
more than sixty knights and three hundred burgesses. Then he departed
from the town of Caen and rode in the same order as he did before,
brenning and exiling the country, and took the way to Evreux and so
passed by it; and from thence they rode to a great town called Louviers:
it was the chief town of all Normandy of drapery, riches, and full of
merchandise. The Englishmen soon entered therein, for as then it was

not closed; it was overrun, spoiled and robbed without mercy: there
was won great riches. Then they entered into the country of Evreux and
brent and pilled all the country except the good towns closed and
castles, to the which the king made none assault, because of the sparing
of his people and his artillery.
On the river of Seine near to Rouen there was the earl of Harcourt,
brother to sir Godfrey of Harcourt, but he was on the French party, and
the earl of Dreux with him, with a good number of men of war: but the
Englishmen left Rouen and went to Gisors, where was a strong castle:
they brent the town and then they brent Vernon and all the country
about Rouen and Pont-de-l'Arche and came to Mantes and to Meulan,
and wasted all the country about, and passed by the strong castle of
Rolleboise; and in every place along the river of Seine they found the
bridges broken. At last they came to Poissy, and found the bridge
broken, but the arches and joists lay in the river: the king lay there a
five days: in the mean season the bridge was made, to pass the host
without peril. The English marshals ran abroad just to Paris, and brent
Saint-Germain in Laye and Montjoie, and Saint-Cloud, and petty
Boulogne by Paris, and the Queen's Bourg:[1] they of Paris were not
well assured of themselves, for it was not as then closed.
[1] Bourg-la-Reine.
Then king Philip removed to Saint-Denis, and or he went caused all the
pentices in Paris to be pulled down; and at Saint-Denis were ready
come the king of Bohemia, the lord John of Hainault, the duke of
Lorraine, the earl of Flanders, the earl of Blois, and many other great
lords and knights, ready to serve the French king. When the people of
Paris saw their king depart, they came to him and kneeled down and
said: 'Ah, sir and noble king, what will ye do? leave thus this noble city
of Paris?' The king said: 'My good people, doubt ye not: the
Englishmen will approach you no nearer than they be.' 'Why so, sir?'
quoth they; 'they be within these two leagues, and as soon as they know
of your departing,