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.
FOOTNOTES:
[9] Château-neuf-en-Timerais,—a town in Perche, election of Verneuil.
[10] Sir Thomas Hos. Q.
CHAP. V.
THE KING OF FRANCE MAKES HIS ENTRY INTO VERNEUIL.—THE RECEPTION HE RECEIVES.—THE SENESCHAL OF POITOU UNDERTAKES AN EXPEDITION AGAINST THE CASTLE OF LOIGNY[11].—IT SURRENDERS TO THE KING, AND SEVERAL ENGLISH ARE TAKEN IN IT.—VERNON SURRENDERS TO THE KING.
On the 27th of August in this year, the king of France made his entry into Verneuil, with much pomp and grandly attended. He was received there as magnificently as possible, for the churchmen and chief inhabitants came out in procession to meet him, dressed in their best clothes and hoods. The populace issued out also in crowds to welcome his arrival: they made bonfires, and strewed the streets with flowers in the best manner they could, singing carols day and night.
The king remained some time in Verneuil, and thither came the bishops of Lisieux and Auxerre to do him homage. During this interval, the seneschal of Poitou formed a plan to gain the castle of Loigny, held by an esquire of Normandy, called the lord de Sainte Marie, as governor for sir Francis de Surienne, called the Arragonian, the owner of this castle, and who had married sir Francis's daughter. Although the seneschal did not come before the place personally, he had practised with the governor (who had under his command two hundred combatants quartered in the lower court); so that when the French appeared, they were admitted into the dungeon, without the knowledge of the men at arms sent by sir Francis for its defence, or of his lady, who was in the castle.
The English, when they saw the French, thought to defend themselves; but finding they were too weak in numbers, they desisted, and were, with their horses in the lower court, and all their effects, seized in the name of the king of France, except the lady of sir Francis, who departed with her baggage, much enraged at the treachery of her son-in-law. The lord de Sainte Marie was re-appointed to the government of the castle, on the terms he had held it before.