Item, they were to deliver up all prisoners, whether confined in the market-place or in other forts, and acquit them of their pledges.
Item, they were not to suffer any person to quit the place before the surrender of the town, and, in like manner, were not to permit any one to enter it, unless so ordered by the kings.
Item, for the due observance of these articles, the besieged were to give assurances signed with the hand and seal of one hundred of the principal townsmen, four-and-twenty of whom were to remain as hostages so long as the two kings might please.
Item, on the signing this treaty, all hostilities were to cease on each side.
Matters now remained in this state until the 10th day of May, when the substance of the above articles was put into execution by commissaries appointed by the two kings, who sent off the prisoners under a strong guard. Some of the principal were carried to Rouen, and thence to England, and others to Paris, where they were confined. The whole of the prisoners of war might be about eight hundred; and their commander in chief, the bastard de Vaurus, was, by king Henry's command, beheaded, and his body hung on a tree, without the walls of Meaux, called thenceforth Vaurus's Tree. This Vaurus had, in his time, hung many a Burgundian and Englishman: his head was fixed to a lance, and fastened on the tree over his body.
Sir Louis Gast, Denis de Vaurus, master John de Rouvieres, and he who had sounded the trumpet, were beheaded at Paris,—their heads fixed on lances over the market-place, and their bodies hung by the arms to a gibbet. All the wealth found in Meaux, and which was very great, was distributed according to the pleasure of king Henry. He was very proud of his victory, and entered the place in great pomp, and remained there some days with his princes to repose and solace himself, having given orders for the complete reparation of the walls that had been so much damaged by artillery at the siege.
CHAP. LXXVI.
AFTER THE REDUCTION OF MEAUX, MANY TOWNS AND CASTLES SURRENDER TO THE KING OF ENGLAND, WHO REGARRISONS THEM WITH HIS OWN MEN.
In consequence of the reduction of Meaux, many considerable towns and forts, as well in the county of Valois as in the surrounding parts, submitted to king Henry, through the intervention of the lord d'Offemont, under whose power they were. In the number were, the town of Crespy in the Valois, the castle of Pierrepont, Merlo, Offemont and others. The lord d'Offemont, however, kept possession of his own towns and forts, and was acquitted of his ransom as prisoner, on condition that he swore obedience to the terms of the peace last concluded between the two kings at Troyes, and gave sufficient securities for his so doing. The bishop of Noyon and the lord de Cauny were his sureties, who pledged their lives and fortunes in his favour.
Those who had been made prisoners in Meaux likewise submitted many towns and castles to the kings of France and England. When the leaders of the Dauphinois in the Beauvoisis heard that king Henry was proceeding so vigorously, and reducing to obedience, by various means, towns and castles that were thought impregnable, they began to be seriously alarmed, and sent ambassadors to treat with him for their safe retreat, in case they were not relieved by the dauphin on a certain day, which they would make known to him.