About three thousand were landed on the strand, and marched along it about the distance of a league to attack the castle of Sluys; but the garrison, in conjunction with the inhabitants of the country, who were greatly frightened, defended it very valiantly, and, what with cannons and other offensive weapons, repulsed their enemies, killing about sixty,—among whom was the earl of Pembroke, one of their leaders[86].
News was brought to the English, that the duke of Burgundy was marching a great force against them; on which they returned to their ships, and then to England.
The duke of Burgundy, however, was not long before he ordered a number of men at arms to be collected under the command of the lord de Croy[87], and others his captains, to defend his country against the invasions of the English. They assembled on the frontiers of Flanders to oppose the English, should they again return to his coasts.
The duke also sent an embassy to the duke of Orleans and the great council at Paris, to demand men and money to enable him to lay siege to Calais, for he was very desirous of it; but he received a negative to the request made by his ambassadors. The duke of Burgundy, on receiving this answer, made preparations for waiting personally on the king at Paris, the better to expedite this business; and for this purpose he went to Arras, where he held many consultations with different great lords, his vassals and dependants.
JOHN DUKE OF BURGUNDY GOES TO PARIS, AND CAUSES THE DAUPHIN AND QUEEN TO RETURN THITHER, WHOM THE DUKE OF ORLEANS WAS CARRYING OFF,—WITH OTHER MATTERS.
When the duke of Burgundy had concluded his business at Arras, he set out on the vigil of the Assumption of the Virgin towards Paris, accompanied by a body of men, to the amount of eight hundred combatants, secretly armed. He stopped some days at the town of Louvres, in the Isle of France, where letters were brought him, to say, that the king had recovered his health from his late illness, and that the queen and the duke of Orleans were gone to Melun, and thence to Chartres, carrying with them the duke of Acquitaine, dauphin of Vienne.
Having considered the contents of these letters, he went to bed and slept, but ordered his trumpet to sound very early, and left the town with all his men, and hastened to Paris to prevent the dauphin from leaving it. On his arrival, he was told by the Parisians, that he was already departed after his mother, which was true; upon which the duke, without dismounting or making any delay, trotted through Paris with his troops as fast as he could in pursuit of the dauphin. He overtook him between Ville-Juive and Corbeil, where the queen and the duke of Orleans were waiting dinner for him. With the dauphin were his uncle by the mother’s side, Louis of Bavaria, the marquis du Pont, son to the duke of Bar, the count Dammartin, Montagu, grand master of the king’s household[88], with many other lords to attend upon him. There was in the litter with him his sister de Priaux, wife to sir James de Bourbon.