lly guarded. Some years previously it had been
suggested to the constable that an attempt might be made upon Calais,
negligently guarded as it was, and the place itself not being in good
order. The Duke of Guise put the idea of this enterprise forward once
more, and begged the king's permission to attempt it, without saying a
word about it to anybody else, which the king considered to be a very
good notion." Guise took the command of the army, and made a feint of
directing its movements towards an expedition in the east of the
kingdom; but, suddenly turning westwards, he found himself on the night
of January 1, 1558, beneath the walls of Calais, "whither, with right
good will, all the princes, lords, and soldiers had marched." On the 3d
of January he took the two forts of Nieullay and Risbank, which covered
the approaches to the place. On the 4th he prepared for, and on the 6th
he delivered, the assault upon the citadel itself, which was carried; he
left there his brother, the Duke of Aumale, with a sufficient force for
defence; the portion of the English garrison which had escaped at the
assault fell back within the town; the governor, Lord Wentworth, "like a
man in desperation, who saw he was all but lost," made vain attempts to
recover this important post under cover of night and of the high sea,
which rendered impossible the prompt arrival of any aid for the French;
but "they held their own inside the castle." The English requested the
Duke of Aumale "to parley so as to come to some honorable and reasonable
terms;" and Guise assented. On the 8th of January, whilst he was
conferring in his tent with the representatives of the governor,
Coligny's brother, D'Andelot, entered the town at the solicitation of
the English themselves, who were afraid of being all put to the sword.
The capitulation was signed. The inhabitants, with their wives and
children, had their lives spared, and received permission to leave
Calais freely and without any insult, and withdraw to England or
Flanders. Lord Wentworth and fifty other persons, to be chosen by the
Duke of Guise, remained prisoners of war; with this exception, all the
soldiers were to return to England, but with empty hands. The place was
left with all the cannons, arms, munitions, utensils, engines of war,
flags and standards which happened to be in it. The furniture, the gold
and silver, coined or other, the merchandise, and the horses passed over
to the disposal of t