On the other hand, he was on bad terms with the dauphin, because he would not give up to him the person of the duke of Brittany,—and was not very safe as to himself; for he found few willing to support him. To avoid greater inconveniences, he withdrew into the viscounty of Limoges, and after some consultations with his brothers, departed thence through the country of Auvergne to Lyon, and thence to Geneva and Basil, on his way to his possessions at Avesnes in Hainault. As he was travelling down the Rhine, he was arrested by the marquis of Baden, by way of reprisal for the pillaging of some of his people in Hainault, and was detained a long time prisoner. To obtain his liberty, it cost him full thirty thousand crowns; after which, he went to Avesnes in Hainault.
While he resided at Avesnes, the duke of Brittany sent some of his people thither to arrest him, and put an iron chain round his neck. They were under the conduct of the following breton gentlemen: sir Roland de Saint Pol, sir John de Lumon, Jacquet de Faulermine, and others; but they managed the matter with so little secresy that their enterprise was known, and some were imprisoned. The rest saved themselves by flight. The count was forced to surrender the prisoners to the judicial court of Mons, and none were executed.
The count de Penthievre never returned to Brittany, but remained all his days in Hainault, and married the daughter and heiress of the lord de Quievrain, by whom, at his decease, he left several children, who did not, however, live until of competent age, so that his estates descended to his brother, the lord de l'Esgle.
CHAP. LII.
THE DAUPHINOIS RETAKE VILLENEUVE-LE-ROI.—THE LORD DE CHASTILLON CONQUERS CHASTEAU-THIERRY, AND MAKES LA HIRE PRISONER.
In the month of February, the Dauphinois regained the town of Villeneuve-le-Roi; but shortly after, the lord de l'Isle-Adam, with others of the burgundian captains, quartered themselves in all the adjoining villages, by way of blockading it. They, however, only remained a certain time, and then decamped without subjecting the town to their obedience, which caused the country around to suffer much. A treaty was, however, made with the governor to allow provision to be brought unmolested to Paris, on paying certain taxes, of which he was to have his share.
At this same time, Château-Thierry, with its castle, was delivered into the hands of the lord de Châtillon, though garrisoned by the Dauphinois, by means of some of the inhabitants, in which La Hire and many of his men were made prisoners, but were set at liberty afterward on ransom.
During this period, the Dauphinois-garrisons at Meaux in Brie, at Compiègne, Pierrefons, and on the borders of the Valois, destroyed all the country round by their inroads, more especially the Beauvoisis, the Vermandois, and Santerre. In like manner did those quartered in the country of Guise to the inhabitants of Hainault, the Cambresis, and the adjacent parts.
While these troubles lasted, from the year 1415 to 1420, the money in France was greatly lowered in value, insomuch that a gold crown from the king's mint was worth twenty-nine sols in the money of the day, although it had been coined for eighteen sols parisis, which very much affected those lords whose rents were payable in money, and caused several law-suits between the parties, on account of the said diminution of the coin, when a horse-load of wheat was worth from seven to eight francs.