ame to the French King. Also King Philip sent to the Duke of
Lorraine, who came to serve him with three hundred spears; also there
came the Earl [of] Salm in Saumois, the Earl of Sarrebruck, the Earl
of Flanders, the Earl William of Namur, every man with a fair company.

Ye have heard herebefore of the order of the Englishmen; how they went
in three battles, the marshals on the right hand and on the left, the
King and the Prince of Wales his son in the midst. They rode but small
journeys, and every day took their lodgings between noon and three of
the clock, and found the country so fruitful that they needed not to
make no provision for their host, but all only for wine; and yet they
found reasonably sufficient thereof. It was no marvel, though, they of
the country were afraid; for before that time they had never seen men
of war, nor they wist not what war or battle meant. They fled away as
far as they might hear speaking of the Englishmen, and left their
houses well stuffed, and granges full of corn; they wist not how to
save and keep it. The King of England and the Prince had in their
battle a three thousand men of arms and six thousand archers, and a
ten thousand men afoot, beside them that rode with the marshals....

Then the King went toward Caen, the which was a greater town and full
of drapery and other merchandise, and rich burgesses, noble ladies and
damosels, and fair churches, and specially two great and rich abbeys,
one of the Trinity, another of Saint Stephen; and on the one side of
the town one of the fairest castles of all Normandy, and captain
therein was Robert of Wargny, with three hundred Genoways, and in the
town was the Earl of Eu and of Guines, Constable of France, and the
Earl of Tancarville, with a good number of men of war. The King of
England rode that day in good order and lodged all his battles
together that night, a two leagues from Caen, in a town with a little
haven called Austrehem, and thither came also all his navy of ships
with the Earl of Huntingdon, who was governour of them.

The constable and other lords of France that night watched well the
town of Caen, and in the morning armed them with all them of the town:
then the constable ordained that none should issue out, but keep their
defenses on the walls, gate, bridge, and river; and left the suburbs
void, because they were not closed; for they thought they should have
enough to do to defend the town, because it was not closed but w