defence was conducted, fell. Maréchal du Bièz, when he threw himself into Montreuil, had appointed his son-in-law Vervin to the command at Boulogne, a young man, who seems to have relied upon Philippe Corse for the performance of a duty to which he found himself unequal; and, having been deprived of that support, he thought further resistance hopeless. Accordingly, he proposed to capitulate, on condition of marching out with bag and baggage. It is said, that the burgesses protested against this surrender, and that the mayor, representing to him how the breach was well repaired, and the place abundantly provided with food and military stores, undertook to defend it with the citizens alone, if he and the garrison were afraid, and thought proper to retire. Vervin, nevertheless, signed the capitulation. Before hostages had been exchanged, a storm arose, which inundated part of the English camp, threw down their tents, and ruined great part of their works. The mayor then renewed his remonstrances, and urged the commander to profit by this unexpected advantage; but Vervin replied, that his word was given to the king of England, and he could not with honour break the engagement that had been made. The point of honour was not admitted in his excuse by the French court, and, by sentence of a court martial, he suffered death.*

It was Henry's intention that Boulogne should be annexed to the English pale: the town, therefore, according to the custom of that age, was cleared of its inhabitants, the old and sick excepted, who were not able to depart. The women and children were nearly 2000, the soldiers about 2400; the whole number of those who went out with heavy hearts, some 6000. Suffolk took session; and on the morrow the king, having the sword borne naked before him by marquis Dorset, like a noble and valiant conqueror, rode into Boulogne, and the trumpeters standing on the walls sounded their trumpets at the time of his entering, to the great comfort of all the king's true subjects the same beholding."

Père Daniel, vii. 893. Hall, 861. Holinshed, 838-840.

pos

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After surveying the town, he ordered Our Lady's church to be pulled down, and a mount thrown up upon its site, for the better defence of the place; then, having appointed Dudley to be his deputy, he returned to England, with a precipitancy that gave the French some colour for imputing it to a sense of danger. Norfolk, indeed, had expressed an anxious wish that the king were safe in his own kingdom, or at least at Calais. He was received, however, by the English as a conqueror. The conquest which he had made was regarded with great exultation and joy by the nation, in whatever light it may have been considered by statesmen*: but the emperor, meantime, had pursued his own interests, without regard to those of his ally, and had made peace with France, which was thus enabled to direct its immediate efforts for the recovery of Boulogne, before the breaches were repaired or the trenches levelled. The siege of Montreuil was of necessity raised: near as that place is to the coast, the army before it had suffered greatly for want of "such behoveful refreshment as those were stored with that lay before Boulogne, having the seas open, and all things at pleasure brought unto them forth of England." They were, indeed, so weakened by death and sickness, that, if the dauphin had made better speed, their retreat was likely to have been most disastrous. But timely foresight had been used, and reinforcements sent to cover this necessary though humiliating movement, so that it was effected without loss. Norfolk, however, did not venture to make a stand at Boulogne: he added 500 men to the garrison, thereby increasing the number to 3300, besides the pioneers. The place was abundantly provided; he left 14,000l. in money; and, having retreated to Calais, he and the other members of the council associated with

* Dr. Nott has justly observed that Boulogne "was of importance not only as it would contribute to the defence of the English possessions around Guisnes and Calais; but as it would protect the English coast itself from insult. Our fleets at that period were not always able to cope with those of France alone; or to preserve the communication open between Dover and Calais. Henry, therefore, justly deemed it a point of no trivial import to obtain possession of Boulogne."-Works of Surrey and Wyatt, vol. i. p. lxv.

him, among whom were Suffolk, Russel, and bishop Gardener, wrote to the king, explaining the reasons upon which they had thus proceeded.

This despatch called forth an angry answer from Henry to his right trusty and right entirely well-beloved cousins; "for as there was none," he said, more willing to take in good part the good doings and probable grounds of his counsellors for excuse, though sometimes they failed in executing his command, yet there was none that more hardly could bear bolstering and unapparent reasons, especially when they inculcated a feigned necessity, to cloak and maintain their faults. He could not but marvel that men of such experience would think a town so sore ruinate, as all men's eyes might perceive, might be in five or six days so repaired, that it was able to resist a main power of France! What, after this fond and sudden departure, was there to hinder the enemy from taking all the stores left in Basse Boulogne, being the great mass, and all his ordnance also?" And to their assertion, that, if they had remained there they should have consumed provision faster than it could be sent to them, we here," said the king, "knowing best the order in which affairs are put, and you there not being yet advertised of it, do think it as possible for us to have victualled you, as you think the same impossible, and that, if you had bidden it, you should have well seen the proof, which at length trieth all." Another reason alleged by them was, that many of those who served before Montreuil had burnt their tents for want of carriages; for which cause, and for want of huts and straw, they could not lie in camp without great destruction of people,..."we think, verily," said the king," that men of courage, and willing to serve in such a case of necessity, would not have had so great respect to their own persons, as to the service of the king their master. For how can the Frenchmen keep their camp, their victuals and forage being so far devastated round about, and the way so ill to carry, and their provisions scantily yet well ordered for them, the

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time of year also well considered, when you excuse yourselves that you cannot lie so nigh a good town, and such a village as Basse Boulogne is being in your aid, with the haven for your victual, so commodious to come to you? He bade them, therefore, seek no more indirect excuses to cloak their ill favoured retreat, but rather study to see his honour redubbed, which therein had been somewhat touched."*

Some part of the reproach which Henry thus unsparingly addressed to those whom he had left behind him in France he might have taken to himself. After his ostentatious entrance into Boulogne, he ought not to have hurried to England while that place was in such a state † that it seemed as if he were leaving it to be re-entered by the enemy. On the dauphin's arrival at Marquise, he was informed by a spy from the town, that all the stores were in the Basse Ville, that none of the breaches had been repaired, that the place was as open as a village, that he had only to enter it, and the upper town being wholly unprovided, would in a few days be at his mercy. Montluc (the liveliest old soldier that ever wrote the history of his own campaigns), who had just received his commission as maître-de-camp, was one of the persons who went to ascertain how far the report of this espial might be trusted. He found the camp and the artillery just as Henry had left them, and every thing in such a state, that the French general determined upon a camisado the following night. Norfolk, and the other members of the council had given their opinion that the town, fortified as it then was, might resist the power of France for that winter; though they acknowledged that no works which they could during that time construct could prevent the enemy, if he came in strength, from burning the base town, and the ships in the harbour, nor from erecting a bastion which should com

Nott's Surrey and Wyatt, i. App. pp. xlviii.-lv.

"The same town," Holinshed says, "being then weak, God knoweth, on all sides, through battery and minings, which, by the king's power, had been made to bring it into his subjection, and the trenches not cast down, nor the ordnance mounted." P. 844.

mand the entrance. They seem not to have considered, that if the stores were taken the upper town must fall. The volunteers for this enterprise set off in the night, wearing their shirts over their armour. They entered at three breaches bravely; but M. de Tais, by whom the information upon which the attempt was concerted had been obtained and verified, was wounded at this time, and compelled to withdraw. Montluc made his way into the town, through a fourth, without resistance, and amused himself, as he says, by attacking three or four houses which were full of Englishmen, whom he judged to be pioneers, because they were mostly without arms, but of whom, nevertheless, more than 200 were killed. The adventurers thought themselves in safe possession of the place: they found there all the store of provisions, with wine in abundance; and they began to pillage, and to revel upon the good cheer of which they made prize. The lord deputy Dudley had left sir Thomas Poynings in command, an able and experienced officer, whose measures upon the first alarm were taken as promptly as judiciously. He occupied most of the breaches through which the enemy had entered, and attacked them in the town, when thus cut off from succour and from retreat. More than 800 were lost, besides prisoners. Montluc behaved, as he always did, with consummate courage, and that presence of mind, without which courage itself is unavailing.* It was chiefly to his exertions that those who escaped were indebted for their preservation. He made his way back to the

He says, "J'appelle Dieu en tesmoing, qu'il me punisse, si de tout ce jour-là je perdis jamais l'entendement. Et me servit bien que Dieu me le conservast; car si je l'eusse perdu nous eussions receu une grande escorne, laquelle n'eussions sceu couvrir, et j'eusse esté en grand danger de n'estre jamais mareschal de France. Nous eussions perdu toutes nos enseignes, et ceux qui les portoient, avec lesquels toutesfois Dieu me fist la grace de sauver. Deslors qu'on est saisi de la peur, et qu'on perd le jugement, on ne sçait ce qu'on fait; c'est la requeste principale que vous devez faire à Dieu de vous garder l'entendement; car quelque danger qu'il y ait, encore y a-t-il moyen d'en sortir, et peut-estre à vostre honneur. Mais lorsque la crainte de la mort vous oste le jugement, adieu vous dis : vous pensez fuir à poupe que vous allez à prouë. Pour un ennemi, il vous semble que vous en voyez dix devant vos yeux, comme font les yvrongnes qui voyent mille chandelles au coup. O le grand'heur que c'est à un homme de nostre mestier, quand le danger ne lui oste le sens; il peut prendre son parte, et éviter la mort et la honte."- Coll. des Mémoires, tom. xxii. p. 318.