Chronicle and Romance | Page 8

they will come and assail us; and we not able to
defend them: sir, tarry here still and help to defend your good city of
Paris.' 'Speak no more,' quoth the king, 'for I will go to Saint-Denis to
my men of war: for I will encounter the Englishmen and fight against
them, whatsoever fall thereof.'
The king of England was at Poissy, and lay in the nunnery there, and

kept there the feast of our Lady in August and sat in his robes of scarlet
furred with ermines; and after that feast he went forth in order as they
were before. The lord Godfrey of Harcourt rode out on the one side
with five hundred men of arms and thirteen[2] hundred archers; and by
adventure he encountered a great number of burgesses of Amiens
a-horseback, who were riding by the king's commandment to Paris.
They were quickly assailed and they defended themselves valiantly, for
they were a great number and well armed: there were four knights of
Amiens their captains. This skirmish dured long: at the first meeting
many were overthrown on both parts; but finally the burgesses were
taken and nigh all slain, and the Englishmen took all their carriages and
harness. They were well stuffed, for they were going to the French king
well appointed, because they had not seen him a great season before.
There were slain in the field a twelve hundred.
[2] A better reading is 'twelve.'
Then the king of England entered into the country of Beauvoisis,
brenning and exiling the plain country, and lodged at a fair abbey and a
rich called Saint-Messien[3] near to Beauvais: there the king tarried a
night and in the morning departed. And when he was on his way he
looked behind him and saw the abbey a-fire: he caused incontinent
twenty of them to be hanged that set the fire there, for he had
commanded before on pain of death none to violate any church nor to
bren any abbey. Then the king passed by the city of Beauvais without
any assault giving, for because he would not trouble his people nor
waste his artillery. And so that day he took his lodging betime in a little
town called Milly. The two marshals came so near to Beauvais, that
they made assault and skirmish at the barriers in three places, the which
assault endured a long space; but the town within was so well defended
by the means of the bishop, who was there within, that finally the
Englishmen departed, and brent clean hard to the gates all the suburbs,
and then at night they came into the king's field.
[3] Commonly called Saint-Lucien, but Saint Maximianus (Messien) is
also associated with the place.
The next day the king departed, brenning and wasting all before him,
and at night lodged in a good village called Grandvilliers. The next day
the king passed by Dargies: there was none to defend the castle,
wherefore it was soon taken and brent. Then they went forth destroying

the country all about, and so came to the castle of Poix, where there
was a good town and two castles. There was nobody in them but two
fair damosels, daughters to the lord of Poix; they were soon taken, and
had been violated, an two English knights had not been, sir John
Chandos and sir Basset; they defended them and brought them to the
king, who for his honour made them good cheer and demanded of them
whither they would fainest go. They said, 'To Corbie,' and the king
caused them to be brought thither without peril. That night the king
lodged in the town of Poix. They of the town and of the castles spake
that night with the marshals of the host, to save them and their town
from brenning, and they to pay a certain sum of florins the next day as
soon as the host was departed. This was granted them, and in the
morning the king departed with all his host except a certain that were
left there to receive the money that they of the town had promised to
pay. When they of the town saw the host depart and but a few left
behind, then they said they would pay never a penny, and so ran out
and set on the Englishmen, who defended themselves as well as they
might and sent after the host for succour. When sir Raynold Cobham
and sir Thomas Holland, who had the rule of the rearguard, heard
thereof, they returned and cried, 'Treason, treason!' and so came again
to Poix-ward and found their companions still fighting with them of the
town. Then anon they of the town were nigh all slain, and the town
brent, and the two castles beaten down.