notice of the intended attempt, and an officer, by name Winter, was sent with 800 men to reinforce the inhabitants. The enemy are said to have landed 2000 troops, and, after losing half their number, to have reimbarked and fled, abandoning their large ships. It is written that the bodies of 1000 gentlemen were carried from this expedition in one vessel into the same town for interment; and the absurd fable has been added, that an inhibition was given out by the French king, not to speak of this miscarriage on pain of death. This story, more than the silence of all the French writers, has thrown some discredit upon the relation.*

Meantime the king of France joined his army between Montreuil and Boulogne. The Pont de Brique was repaired and made passable for artillery; and, passing by Boulogne-berg, he halted between that place and the forest of Suren, long enough to throw up entrenchments, in which a force was left sufficient to secure the passage of provisions to his camp. This done, he pitched his tents on a hill near Ambleteuse, and, having viewed the forts, planted five and twenty pieces of artillery against the fort of Salacques, built in a place called the Almain camp, at a little distance from Ambleteuse. The fierce fire that was opened so frightened Charles Stourton, the captain of the place, and George Willoughby, a gentleman associated with him, that they came out to parley with the constable, and went to him in the trenches, without stipulating previously for a suspension of hostilities. What they demanded was, that they might depart with bag and baggage; but the constable purposely detained them in debating upon terms, till his soldiers forced their way into a place which the garAug. rison, trusting to the proposed capitulation, were not 24. upon the alert to defend. They put to the sword some fourscore who attempted to make head against them, the fort containing 230 persons, men and women.

This done, the guns were turned against the castle of Ambleteuse; the lord John Grey, who commanded *Holinshed, 1012. Campbell, i. 279.

there, withdrew the men into the main fort, that his means of resistance which at the most were too small, might not be diminished by dividing them. On the following day the French made their approaches and began to batter the fort: they summoned it after the king's dinner; and the lord Grey refused to admit the herald, lest he should discover the weakness of the place. But he did this discourteously; so that the king was with some reason offended, and the battery was renewed with such angry determination, that the lord John and the captains within perceived they were not able by any means to defend the place any longer. They offered, therefore, to surrender upon composition, and could obtain no better terms than that" the general (for honour sake) should have one horse to ride on, in his corselet, without sword or dagger :" the same sort of honour was allowed to two other officers; but all the other troops, with the women and children, were to depart on foot in their shirts, leaving all their goods and substance behind them. The capitulation did not secure them from the brutality of the French soldiers, who, entering by the trenches, sacked all they could lay hands on. M. de Dessé, who had just arrived from Scotland, where he commanded the French succours, saved many of the women from these ruffians, and, getting them out through the breach, presented them to the king, who ordered them to be safely escorted, with all they had about them, till they were out of danger. The others were marched out three and three, from 700 to 800 in all, of both sexes, many being hurt and maimed; some with half a shirt on to cover them, and divers stark naked: in this plight they were marched before Henri II., who stood there to behold this poor triumph, with "his whole army drawn up in order on either side, that they might pass betwixt their ranks, as it were through a lane." The commander in Blacquenay did not wait to be besieged, but proposed to surrender on the same terms which had been granted to Ambleteuse ;

he did not inform himself what those terms were, and they were granted in derision.*

Sir Nicholas Arnault, seeing now that he could make no successful resistance in Boulogne-berg, removed every thing out of it to Boulogne, and set fire to the fort. Boulogne itself and La Tour d'Ordre, or the Old Man, as it was called, at the mouth of the harbour on the right bank of the river, were all that now remained in possession of the English in the Boulonnois. This tower the king proceeded to besiege; but M. de Vieilleville, as a business of more importance, proposed to construct a fort above it on the coast, and thereby not only cut off the tower from supplies either by land or sea, but prevent the communication along the coast between Calais and Boulogne. While this work was in progress, the mareschal took the opportunity of manifesting his resentment of some words which, during his embassy in England, had passed between him and the protector Somerset. He sent his son-in-law, M. d'Espinay, with the gentlemen of his household and a trumpet, to the gates of Boulogne, where they challenged Somerset, if he were there, to break a lance with Vieilleville. The reply was, that Somerset was ill, and at London. It was then demanded whether any brave knight would take his place; and to this, the French writer says, no man made answer. D'Espinay then, in his own name, challenged any son of a millort," stating who he was, and that he had not yet completed his twentieth year; and this challenge, against the opinion, it is said, of all the English captains, was accepted by a son of Dudley's, who was of the same age. The conditions were, that whichever might be dismounted should remain prisoner, and his horse and arms become the property of the victor. The sieur de Taillade, one of the gentlemen who accompanied d'Espinay, was the most skilful man of his age in the management of horses. As soon as he saw Dudley come out of the gates, mounted on a fine Spanish horse, he said to d'Espinay, “ I will tell you *Mém. de M. de Vieilleville. Coll. Gén. xxix. 190-192. Holinshed, 1012.

66

M. D'ESPINAY.

how you shall take this millort.

249

Do you not see that

he rides like an Albanian, his knees almost touching the saddle-bow? Sit you firm, and do not couch your spear till you are within three or four paces of him; for when the spear is couched at a distance the point droops before it comes to the push, and the more so because the sight is confused then by the visor." Dudley missed his attaint; d'Espinay observed the caution which had been given, unhorsed his antagonist, and, carrying him away prisoner, presented him to the king.* But the king, wellpleased, returned the noble prisoner, and, drawing his sword, gave the captor the accolade, knighting him upon the spot.†

Fort Vieilleville, as the new work was called, had distressed the Old Man; and the French were persuaded not only that they should speedily reduce this last of the English outworks, but that Boulogne itself would soon fall into their hands. They inferred this from the language of Dudley's friends who came under a safeconduct to visit him, and who were supposed to be preparing the way for a capitulation; for they cursed the day on which the late king had taken Boulogne, and said that, if they were of the council of state, their advice would be, to try by some fair composition to get rid of a place which had drained England both of men and money. The garrison, however, manifested no such disposition, but were ready at any time for a sharp skirmish; and while Henri was preparing to besiege the town, as soon as the tower should have been taken,

"Le suppliant de le prendre, comme si c'estoit le roy de l'Angleterre ; et que s'il estoit de ceste qualité, il seroit plus hardy de luy en faire ung présent."

+ Mém. de Vieilleville, 194-198.

"Tenants une infinité d'aultres langaiges, parmy la bonne chère qu'on leur faisoit aux tentes et pavillons de M. de Vieilleville et de M. d'Espinay, par lesquelles on jugeoit aisément qu'ils estoient ennuyés de ceste guerre, ou que par la honteuse reddition de tant de forts, ils auroient perdu le courage." (199.) Vincent Carloix says, also, that they said the king of England had no right to Boulogne, because his father had obtained it, not by true and lawful arms, but by treason and corruption, which derogated from the reputation of the king and crown of England. This is not likely; for, though Vervin suffered death on a charge of corruption, as well as cowardice, of the former charge, at least, he must be considered as exonerated, when his memory was rehabilitated a few years afterwards.

a storm of wind and rain, continuing eight and forty hours, without intermission, blew down his tents, not one remaining standing, and deluged his camp. Many soldiers saved themselves by swimming; yet more than 200 were drowned, and many more must have perished without the aid of their horses. The king was thus obliged to leave a camp which the elements had broken up. The garrison of Boulogne made the loudest demonstrations of joy for this retreat, but failed to take that advantage of it to which opportunity invited them; for the cavalry, jaded as it was, could have afforded no protection to the retreating forces, and a few hundred archers might have exterminated the army. So sensible, indeed, were the French of the danger from which they had escaped, that the officer who occupied the burnt fort of Boulogne-berg made as much rejoicing for their safe arrival there, as the English had done for their own deliverance.

Having garrisoned his conquests, Henry dismissed the remainder of his army. Young Dudley now requested d'Espinay to fix his ransom, that he might not be carried farther into the country; and when asked if he was tired of his company, and had no wish to go as far as Paris, he replied, that he had business of such consequence to settle in England, that, rather than be delayed, he would pay a double ransom. One of his people took d'Espinay aside, informed him that his master was engaged to marry a daughter of the earl of Bedford, and that the lady was in a state of great unhappiness because of his captivity. After this explanation, d'Espinay told his prisoner that he might depart as soon as he pleased, and should be provided with a full passport: Dudley thanked him, desired him to name the sum which he must pay, and was about to enter into a detail of his means, when the noble Frenchman interrupted him by saying that no explanation upon that matter was required: this, he believed, had been on both sides their first essay in arms, and ought not, therefore, to be made an affair of money. The war was not finished be