midst a huge keep, furnished with bastions and
towers, which was called the Castle. On arriving before the place,
September 3, 1346, Edward "immediately had built all round it," says
Froissart, "houses and dwelling-places of solid carpentry, and arranged
in streets as if he were to remain there for ten or twelve years, for his
intention was not to leave it winter or summer, whatever time and
whatever trouble he must spend and take. He called this new town
Villeneuve la Hardie; and he had therein all things necessary for an
army, and more too, as a place appointed for the holding of a market on
Wednesday and Saturday; and therein were mercers' shops, and butchers'
shops, and stores for the sale of cloth, and bread, and all other
necessaries. King Edward did not have the city of Calais assaulted by
his men, well knowing that he would lose his pains, but said he would
starve it out, however long a time it might cost him, if King Philip of
France did not come to fight him again, and raise the siege."

Calais had for its governor John de Vienne, a valiant and faithful
Burgundian knight, "the which, seeing," says Froissart, "that the King of
England was making every sacrifice to keep up the siege, ordered that all
sorts of small folk, who had no provisions, should quit the city without
further notice. They went forth on a Wednesday morning, men, women, and
children, more than seventeen hundred of them, and passed through King
Edward's army. They were asked why they were leaving; and they answered,
because they had no means of living. Then the king permitted them to
pass, and caused to be given to all of them, male and female, a hearty
dinner, and after dinner two shillings apiece, the which grace was
commended as very handsome; and so indeed it was." Edward probably hoped
that his generosity would produce, in the town itself which remained in a
state of siege, a favorable impression; but he had to do with a
population ardently warlike and patriotic, burghers as well as knights.
They endured for eleven months all the sufferings arising from isolation
and famine; though, from time to time, fishermen and seamen in their
neighborhood, and amongst others two seamen of Abbeville, the names of
whom have been preserved in history, Marant and Mestriel, succeeded in
getting victuals in to them. The King of France made two attempts to
relieve them. On the 20th of May, 1347, he assembled his troops at
Amiens; but they were not r