Nearly five hundred Burgundians were killed, wounded, taken prisoners, or burned. The sparks of fire, driven by the wind, were borne down upon the roof and the hoarding of the tower at the angle, and it caught fire about six o'clock in the morning.
The day was a fortunate one for the defenders, but they had lost nearly two hundred in killed and wounded. Anseric had been struck by several quarrels that pierced his hauberk, and was covered with blood. The baron, that he might be more at his ease in fighting, feeling himself oppressed by his helmet, had taken it off during the struggle, and had a large wound in his head. They hastened to throw over the battlements the bodies of the slain Burgundians upon the last blazing timbers of the tower, and to bury in the court the dead that had fallen there. All in the castle were exhausted with fatigue. Eleanor and her attendants were engaged in dressing wounds and in bringing food and drink to the various posts. The lady of the castle preserved her tranquil countenance and gentle look amid these sanguinary scenes, and during the whole day and through the following night she did not cease to render aid to all who needed it. "Fair niece," said the baron to her, while she was dressing his wound, "if the king's army does not make haste it will find no more defenders to deliver; but we have given the duke some trouble, and if he goes on he, too, may have to return to his court alone."
The 22nd of June passed without fighting. The duke had a cat constructed with a view to sapping the rampart at its base—which seemed the more feasible, since the destruction of its hoarding and the burning of the tower in the angle deprived the defenders of the means of opposing the sapping effectually. The garrison could see the enemy engaged in this work in the bailey behind the mantelets, and they accumulated within the rampart all the materials they could procure, with a view to blocking up the mouth of the mine at the moment it reached the court.
On the morning of the 25th of June, the watch posted on the gateway tower were much surprised at seeing not a single Burgundian in the bailey. They went immediately to inform Anseric and the baron. "It is either a ruse, or the king's army is coming," said the latter; "let there be a sharp look-out in every quarter." They ascended the donjon. The posts on the south were abandoned. The cat and the mantelets remained in the bailey as well as the trebuchets. About noon the baron sent out ten men with the deserter, who was to conduct them to the various points occupied by the Burgundian captains. In three hours' time they returned, saying that they had met only some laggards, who had fled at their approach, and some wounded; that the encampment was utterly deserted, but there were some waggons and military engines left.
The duke having been informed of the advance of the king's army, which was only a day's march from the castle, had decamped in the night, abandoning his material of war.
Great was the joy at La Roche-Pont. The inhabitants of the town soon came and confirmed the news. The last of the Burgundians had departed about noon, not without leaving many of their men on the field; for, in spite of the injunctions of the duke, the inhabitants of the lower town of Saint-Julien had been considerably plundered and had driven out the last of the soldiers with stones and pike thrusts.
Soon afterwards the Sieur de la Roche-Pont did homage for his fief to King Philip Augustus; and the monks re-entered their abbey, for the repair of which the king gave five hundred livres.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] See the general bird's-eye view, [Fig. 37].
[14] The parts of the castle marked red are those taken by the Burgundians; those marked black are still retained by the defenders. At a is marked the breach in the barbican; at b the filling up of the fosse and the first breach made in the curtain; at c the second breach. At o o are seen the Burgundian posts established on the night of the 6th and 7th of June; at x the outline of the subterranean passage of the refuge postern of the donjon; at z the quarry; at P the route traversed by Pierre Landry and Eleanor's escort; at R their place of concealment, and at S the point where they were got into the castle by means of a rope.