CHAP. XII.
MANY EVENTS BRIEFLY SPOKEN OF.
WHILE these things were passing, the duke of Burgundy left Artois, and, making Paris in his road, went to Burgundy, where he remained until the month of February following. He took with him the count de Richemont, who there espoused his sister, as this marriage had been agreed on some time before.
At the end of July, a body of French assembled from the borders of Mousson, the county of Guise and other parts, and suddenly shut up within Bethlehem the bailiff of the Vermandois, and the bastard de St Pol; but sir John de Luxembourg, and the earl marshal of England instantly collected a number of their men, and hastened to raise the siege. The French, on hearing this, decamped as speedily as they could for their own territories, and were pursued full twenty leagues by the earl marshal and sir John de Luxembourg, who hastened after with the intent to combat them.
In this year, a numerous army of Castilians and Arragones arrived at the port of Naples, and took by storm that town, which was plundered and sacked. Eight hundred of the principal inhabitants were made prisoners and sent to Arragon, where the greater number of them died. A third part of the town was burnt and totally destroyed, to the great grief of king Louis; but he shortly after, by the succours sent him from the duke of Milan reconquered it and several other towns.
In August following, sir John de Luxembourg took by storm the fortress of Arsie, in which were about thirty pillagers of the party of king Charles, some of whom were beheaded, others hung, and the place demolished. Sir John went thence to besiege Landrecy, where he remained until October battering the wall with his engines of war. In the end, however, the garrison surrendered, on having their lives and great part of their fortunes spared; and the castle was also demolished.
At the same time, the earl marshal of England, with about six hundred combatants, entered the Laonnois; and those of the party of king Charles assembled a body of men to repel him,—but the earl, having notice thereof, marched against them, and forced them to fly. Part of them, in their flight, took shelter in a fort wherein they were so closely besieged by the earl that they surrendered at discretion, when many of them were hanged, and the fort demolished.
In this month of August, the governor of la Buisserie, between Tornus and Mâcon, who was attached to king Charles, fixed a day for the surrender of that castle to the lord de Toulongeon, marshal of Burgundy, on payment of a sum that had been previously settled between them; but on that day the governor placed two ambuscades near to the town, and when the lord de Toulongeon had passed the first with but a dozen persons, those in ambush fell on him so suddenly that few escaped being carried with their lord prisoners into the castle. After a certain time, he was exchanged for the count de Ventadour, made prisoner at the battle of Crevant, as has been related.
In this year also, sir John de Luxembourg reduced to obedience the strong places which king Charles held in the Cambresis and Tierrache; and all the lands in that country belonging to the count de Pontieuvre were placed in the hands of the count de Hainault by the lord de Havrech, governor thereof,—because it was suspected that the count de Pontieuvre would not garrison the strong places which he had there, such as Landrecy, Avesnes, and others.