CHAP. IV.
THE KING OF FRANCE SUMMONS MANTES TO SURRENDER,—WHICH IT DOES, AND IS TAKEN POSSESSION OF, IN THE NAME OF THE KING, BY THE COUNT DE DUNOIS, HIS LIEUTENANT-GENERAL.
On the 26th of this same month of August, and on the morrow of the feast of St Louis, the king left Chartres with a noble company, and fixed his quarters at Château-neuf-en-Timerais[9], and, the same day, sent his heralds to summon the garrison of Mantes,—which town was held and occupied against his will. While the heralds were on their embassy, the counts de Dunois and St Pol arrived with five or six hundred combatants, the same day, before the town of Mantes, and summoned the inhabitants to return to their obedience to the king of France. They at first refused, from fear of the garrison, although in their hearts they were well inclined to obey the summons,—and the lieutenant-general ordered preparations for an immediate attack.
The inhabitants noticed this, but were fearful that the english garrison, amounting to two hundred and sixty men, under the command of sir Thomas Hos[10], knight, and chancellor for the king of England in these parts, would make a defence. He was indeed not in the town; but his lieutenant, Thomas de Sainte Barbe, bailiff of the place, was present, and determined on resistance as long as he could. The inhabitants, therefore, foreseeing the ruin of their town, caused the bailiff to be informed, that if he would not enter into a capitulation for the surrender of the place, they should certainly do so. This they would not have dared to say, if they had not felt themselves the strongest; and the better to force the English to terms, they seized the tower and gate called the Port-au-Saint, with the whole of that quarter, and then went in a body to the lieutenant-general, and concluded with him a treaty for the surrender of their town.
The English were desirous of making resistance, and would have opposed the French, had not this tower and its defences been occupied by the townsmen. A copy of the capitulation was sent them, about four o'clock in the afternoon, by a herald accompanied by fifty men at arms, who were received by the inhabitants, and posted in this tower, to guard them against the English, should there be occasion. Although the lieutenant-governor had accepted the terms for himself and his companions the bailiffs, the count de Dunois remained with his army in order of battle before the walls from morning to evening, when he entered the place with a strong detachment, to guard the inhabitants from pillage and other mischiefs, which men at arms were accustomed to do on similar occasions,—and also to confirm the townsmen in their loyalty and obedience toward the king.