FOOTNOTES:
[118] Blaye,—on the Garonne, 13 leagues and a half from Bordeaux.
[119] Le Bourg,—a village near Bordeaux.
[120] Dax,—an ancient city of Gascony, on the Adour.
[121] Castillon,—near Perigueux.
[122] St Emilion,—near the Dordogne, six leagues from Bordeaux.
CHAP. XXVI.
THE GREATER PART OF THE TOWNS AND CASTLES IN THE DUCHY OF GUIENNE ENTER INTO TREATIES FOR THEIR SURRENDER, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF BAYONNE.—BORDEAUX SURRENDERS.
On the 2d of June, the count de Dunois sent a detachment to lay siege to a town called Fronsac[123], while he remained in le Bourg to settle the future government of the country for the king's advantage. Having done this, he went in person against Fronsac, and sent a herald to summon Libourne[124] to surrender to the king. The inhabitants sent a deputation back with the herald to conclude a treaty with the count which being done, the care of the place was given to the count of Angoulême.
To return to the castle of Fronsac, which was the strongest in all Guienne, and has been always guarded by a garrison of native Englishmen, because it has a chambre royalle[125], and is the key to Guienne and the Bordelois. The English, therefore, necessarily made the greatest possible exertions in its defence, during a severe and well-conducted siege of a fortnight. The English, then, seeing the prodigious force brought against them, which was not a fourth part of the chivalry the king had in those parts, with the numerous train of battering cannon, and other artillery, and that the franc archers were then besieging four places at once, without a possibility of any one succouring the other, from the inundations of the Gironde and Dordogne, caused by the melting of the snows among the mountains, and also that the french army in Guienne was much superior to any the king of England could then bring against it: having considered all these things, the garrison in Fronsac demanded a parley with the count de Dunois, and concluded a treaty on the terms that if they were not reinforced, so as to be able to offer battle to the French on or before the eve of St John Baptist's day, they would surrender the place. In like manner were the barons of the country, and even the town, bounden to surrender; for the French depended on being powerful enough to reduce all the places in the duchy of Guienne, held by king Henry, to the obedience of the king of France,—and, for greater security, hostages were demanded and given.