ombat in London between the lord
Scales and the bastard of Burgundy. His letter of challenge, in which he
terms the king of England his sovereign lord, is printed in the Excerpta
Historica, 1831, p. 216; and that of sir Jehan de Chassa accepting it at p.
219, addressed, _A treshonnoure escueire Louys de Brutallis_. His own
signature is _Loys de Brutalljs_. The encounter is thus noticed in the
Annals of William of Wyrcestre: "Et iij^o die congressi sunt pedestres in
campo, in praesencia regis, Lodowicus Bretailles cum Burgundiae; deditque Rex
honorem ambobus, attamen Bretailles habuit se melius in campo:" and thus by
Olivier de la Marche: "On the morrow Messire Jehan de Cassa and a Gascon
squire named Louis de Brettailles, servant of Mons. d'Escalles, did arms on
foot: and they accomplished these arms without hurting one another much.
And on the morrow they did arms on horseback; wherein Messire Jean de
Chassa had great honour, and was held for a good runner at the lance."
Lowys de Bretaylles, as his name is printed by Caxton, was still attendant
upon the same nobleman, then earl Rivers, in 1473, when he went to the
pilgrimage of St. James in Galicia; and upon that occasion, soon after
sailing from Southampton, he lent to the earl the Book of _Les Dictes
Moraux des Philosophes_, written in French by Johan de Tronville, which the
earl translated, and caused it to be printed by Caxton, as _The Dicts and
Sayings of the Philosophers_, in 1477.

[67] Fabyan's Chronicle.

[68] The former importance and power of the constable are thus described by
Commines: "Some persons may perhaps hereafter ask, Whether the king alone
was not able to have ruined him? I answer, No; for his territories lay just
between those of the king and the duke of Burgundy: he had St. Quintin
always, and another strong town in Vermandois: he had Ham and Bohain, and
other considerable places not far from St. Quintin, which he might always
garrison with what troops (and of what country) he pleased. He had four
hundred of the king's men at arms, well paid; was commissary himself, and
made his own musters,--by which means he feathered his nest very well, for
he never had his complement. He had likewise a salary of forty-five
thousand francs, and exacted a crown upon every pipe of wine that passed
into Hainault or Flanders through any of his dominions; and, besides all
this, he had great lordships and possessions of his own, a great interest
in France, and a gr