poiled the churches and monasteries. They even took and robbed the most part of the sacred shrines of many bodies of saints, which they stripped of all the precious stones, gold and silver, together with many other jewels and holy things appertaining to the aforesaid churches.

There is not a Christian but would have shuddered at the atrocious excesses committed by this soldiery in Soissons: married women violated before their husbands, young damsels in the presence of their parents and relatives, holy nuns, gentlewomen of all ranks, of whom there were many in the town: all, or the greater part, were violated against their wills, and known carnally by divers nobles and others, who after having satiated their own brutal passions, delivered them over without mercy to their servants; and there is no remembrance of such disorder and havoc being done by Christians, considering the many persons of high rank that were present; and who made no efforts to check them: there were also many gentlemen in the king's army who had relations in the town, as well secular as churchmen, but the disorder was not the less on that account.

During the storming of the place, several, foreseeing that it must be taken, thought to save themselves by escaping over the walls to the river, and swimming across; but the greater part were drowned, as their bodies were found in divers parts of the stream. Some women of rank were, however, in this disorder conducted to the quarters of the king and the duke of Acquitaine by their friends, and thus saved from suffering the like infamy with others who could not escape from the place.

During the siege, sir Hector, bastard of Bourbon, as prudent and valiant in arms as any of the king's party, while parleying with Enguerrand de Bournouville, was so grievously wounded in the face by an arrow that he died; and the duke of Bourbon, who much loved his brother, conceived, on account of this act, which he thought was treacherously done, so violent a hatred against Enguerrand, and some others of the besieged, that he prevailed on the king and council to have him beheaded, his head placed on a lance, and his body hung by the shoulders on a gibbet. Many princes and captains, notwithstanding Enguerrand had

been their enemy, were greatly displeased at his death, and not without cause, for he was at that time renowned as the flower of the warriors of all France.

With him were beheaded sir Pierre de Menau, one of the governors of the town, and of the inhabitants, master Aussiel Bassuel, advocate, and four other gentlemen, whose heads were put on lances, and their bodies hung in the usual manner on the gibbet.

Master John Titet, a wise and learned advocate, by whom all the business of the town had until then been managed, was carried with some others to Laon, and there examined: he was afterwards beheaded, and hung by the shoulders on a gallows. Fifty-one persons were sent to the Châtelet prison in Paris, several of whom were beheaded, such as Gilles du Plessis, knight, and others.

Very many of the townsmen, english archers, and soldiers of the garrison were hung on a gibbet without Soissons: others escaped death by ransoming themselves, namely, the old lord de Menau, sir Colart de Phiennes, Lamon de Launoy, Guyot le

Bouteiller, and great numbers of gentlemen. Those who had taken them allowed them their liberty, on their promising to send the amount of their ransoms by a certain day, so that the king's justice might not be inflicted upon them.

After some days had passed, the king caused to be restored, by some of the pillagers, the bones of many bodies of saints, and divers relics; but all the gold and jewels that had adorned them were gone; and even in this state, many were forced to buy them back for large sums, when they were replaced in the churches from which they had been stolen.

Thus was this grand and noble city of Soissons, strong from its situation, walls and towers, full of wealth, and embellished with fine churches and holy relics, totally ruined and destroyed by the army of king Charles and of the princes who accompanied him. The king, however, before his departure, gave orders for its rebuilding, and appointed new officers for the defence and support of it,-who, when the army had marched away, recalled as many as possible of the inhabitants who had fled before it was taken. The

king also granted a total abolition of taxes, excepting, nevertheless, those who had been principally instrumental in admitting the Burgundians within their town.

CHAP. VI.

THE KING, AFTER THE CAPTURE OF SOISSONS, MARCHES TO ST QUENTIN, AND THENCE TO PERONNE, TO FACILITATE HIS ENTRANCE INTO ARTOIS.

HAVING done these things at Soissons, the king departed, and went to the town of Laon, where he was magnificently and joyfully received by the clergy, burghers and inhabitants of that town. Shortly after his arrival, Philip count de Nevers, baron de Donsy of the royal lineage, and brother to the duke of Burgundy, came thither under the protection of a passport from the king, and was lodged by the royal harbingers, in the abbey of Saint Martin des Premonstrés. He had been informed by some of his friends, that the king intended. to send into his county of Rethel a large force to seize his person; and for this reason