had an ample
store of provisions, had declared themselves for the Duke of Burgundy;
but now, in their alarm, they supplicate aid from the Dauphin against
the common enemy. His answer was, that he was compelled to employ his
troops in defending his own towns against the Duke of Burgundy.[172]

[Footnote 172: Henry's army had received various
reinforcements. One accession is recorded by an
item in the Pell Rolls, of rather an interesting
character, showing that both the Irish and the
ecclesiastics of Ireland gave him good and
acceptable proof of the interest they took in his
success. It is the payment of 19_l._ 17_s._ on the
1st of July 1418, "to masters and mariners of
Bristol for embarking the Prior of Kilmaynham with
two hundred horsemen and three hundred
foot-soldiers from Waterford in Ireland, to go to
the King in France." An entry also occurs in the
following October: "To the Prior of Kilmaynham
coming from Ireland to Southampton, with a good
company of men, to proceed to Normandy to serve the
King in the wars, 100_l._" An order from the King
to his Chancellor, the Bishop of Durham, to
expedite ships from Bristol for the transport of
these men from Waterford to France, is preserved
among the miscellaneous records in the Tower. It is
dated June 3rd, at Ber-nay; to which a postscript
was added on the next day, urging the utmost
expedition, as the troops were tarrying only for
the means of sailing.--See Bentley's Excerpta
Historica, p. 388.]

The whole English army, with a great train of artillery, came (p. 224)
up before the city on the last day of July 1418, before another
harvest could afford new supplies of corn. To that one town the people
of Normandy had brought all their treasures; and those who were
intrusted with the safekeeping of the place seemed determined to
endure all the miseries of blockade and famine, rather than surrender.
Henry, with the resolution not to lavish the lives of his soldiers by
attempting to take this town by storm