But, however dissatisfied the duke was with the truce, the constable of France had cause to be still more so: for, having deceived all parties, he could expect nothing but inevitable ruin. He made one more attempt to ingratiate himself with king Edward, by offering him the towns of Eu and St. Valery for winter quarters, and a loan of 50,000 crowns; but king Louis immediately received intimation of this, and at once ordered the two towns to be burned. King Edward returned to the constable this answer, "That the truce was already concluded, and could not be altered; but, had the constable performed his former promise (as to the town of St. Quentin), the truce would never have been made." This answer stung the constable to the very soul, and made him desperate on all sides.
In order to bring the treaty to a conclusion, king Edward advanced within half a league of Amiens; and the king of France, being upon one of the gates of the city, (where he had arrived on the 22d of August,) viewed from a distance the English army marching up. "Speaking impartially, (continues Commines,) the troops seemed but raw and unused to action in the field; for they were in very ill order, and observed no manner of discipline. Our king sent the king of England 300 cartloads[[59]] of the best wines in France as a present, and I think the
carts made as great a show as the whole English army. Upon the strength of the truce, numbers of the English came into the town, where they behaved themselves very imprudently, and without the least regard to their prince's honour; for they entered the streets all armed, and in great companies, so that if the king of France could have dispensed with his oath, never was there so favourable an opportunity of cutting off a considerable number of them; but his majesty's design was only to entertain them nobly, and to settle a firm and lasting peace, that might endure during his reign. The king had ordered two long tables to be placed on either side the street, at the entrance of the town gate, which were covered with a variety of good dishes of all sorts of viands most likely to relish their wine, of which there was great plenty, and of the richest that France could produce, with a troop of servants to wait on them; but not a drop of water was drank. At each of the tables the king had placed five or six boon companions, persons of rank and condition, to entertain those who had a mind to take a hearty glass, amongst whom were the lord of Craon, the lord of Briquebec, the lord of Bressure, the lord of Villiers, and several others. As the English came up to the gate, they saw what was prepared, and there were persons appointed on purpose to take their horses by the bridles and lead them to the tables, where every man was treated handsomely, as he came in his turn, to their very great satisfaction. When they had once entered the town, wherever they went, or whatever they called for, nothing was to be paid; there were nine or ten taverns liberally furnished with all that they wanted, the French king bearing all the costs of that entertainment, which lasted three or four days."
On Childermas day (the 28th of August[[60]]) the license of the English visitors had grown to such a height, that it was. estimated that there were at least 9000 of them in the town. The councillors of Louis were alarmed, and although on that day the superstitious monarch never spoke upon business, nor allowed any one else to address him thereon, but took it as an ill omen, Commines was induced to disturb his devotions, in order to inform him of the state of affairs. The king commanded him immediately to get on horseback, and endeavour to speak with some of the English captains of note, to persuade them to order their troops to retire, and if he met any of the French captains to send them to him, for he
would be at the gate as soon as Commines. Commines met three or four English commanders of his acquaintance, and spoke to them according to the king's directions; but for one man that they directed to leave the town, there were twenty that came in. In company with the lord of Gié (afterwards maréchal of France) Commines went into a tavern, where, though it was not yet one o'clock, there had already been a hundred and eleven reckonings that morning. The house was filled with company; some were singing, others were asleep, and all were drunk; upon observing which circumstance, Commines concluded there was no danger, and sent to inform the king of it; who came immediately to the gate, well attended, having commanded 200 or 300 men at arms to be harnessed privately in their captains' houses, some of whom he posted at the gate by which the English entered. The king then ordered his dinner to be brought to the porter's lodgings at the gate, where he dined, and did several English captains the honour of admitting them to dinner with him. The king of England had been informed of this disorder, and was much ashamed of it, and sent to the king of France to desire him to admit no more of his soldiers into the town. The king of France sent him word back he would not do that, but if the king of England pleased to send a party of his own guards thither, the gate should be delivered up to their charge, and they then might let in or shut out whomever they pleased, which was done accordingly.
In order to bring the whole affair to a conclusion, consultation was now taken for the place that might be most convenient for the proposed interview between the two kings, and commissioners were appointed to survey it,—the lord du Bouchage and Commines on the French part, and the lord Howard, Thomas St. Leger, and a herald on the English. Upon taking view of the river, they agreed upon Picquigny, where the Somme is neither wide nor fordable. On the one side, by which king Louis would approach, was a fine open country; and on the other side it was the same, only when king Edward came to the river, he was obliged to traverse a causeway about two bow-shots in length, with marshes on both sides, "which might (remarks Commines) have produced very dangerous consequences to the English, if our intentions had not been honourable. And certainly, as I have said before, the English do not manage their treaties and capitulations with so much cunning and policy as the French do, let people say what they will, but proceed more openly, and with greater straightforwardness; yet a man must be careful, and take heed not to affront them, for it is dangerous meddling with them."
When the place of meeting was settled, the next business was to build a bridge,
which was done by French carpenters. The bridge was large and strong, and in the midst was contrived a massive wooden lattice, such as lions' cages were made with, every aperture between the bars being no wider than to admit a man's arm; at the top were merely boards to keep off the rain, and the area was large enough to contain ten or twelve men on a side, the bars running full out to either side of the bridge, to hinder any person from passing either to the one side or the other. For passage across the river there was provided only one small boat, rowed by two men.
The incident in French history which suggested these extraordinary precautions had occurred fifty-six years before; when, at a similar meeting upon a bridge at Montereau fault Yonne, John duke of Burgundy and his attendants were treacherously slaughtered in the presence of Charles the Seventh (then Dauphin), in revenge for the murder of Louis duke of Orleans. In the barricade of that fatal bridge there was a wicket, which the duke himself incautiously opened; a circumstance which the timid Louis well remembered, and he now repeated the story to Commines, and expressly commanded that there should be no such doorway.
When the bridge at Picquigny was ready, the interview between the two kings took place on the 29th of August 1475. The description which Commines gives of it is highly graphic and interesting: "The king of France came first, attended by about 800 men of arms. On the king of England's side, his whole army was drawn up in battle array; and, though we could not ascertain their total force, yet we saw such a vast number both of horse and foot, that the body of troops which was with us seemed very inconsiderable in comparison with them; but indeed the fourth part of our army was not there. It was arranged that twelve men of a side were to attend each of the kings at the interview, and they were already chosen from among their greatest and most trusty courtiers. We had with us four of the king of England's retinue to view what was done among us, and they had as many of ours, on their side, to have an eye over their actions. As I said before, our king came first to the barriers, attended by twelve persons, among whom were John duke of Bourbon and the cardinal his brother.[[61]] It was the king's pleasure (according to his old and frequent custom) that I should be dressed like him that day.[[62]]"