a confidence in his own force, which he knew
to be much inferior to that of the enemy; but, on the contrary, from a
sense of his present necessities, which must engage the king to act the
part of his confederate, not that of a mediator.

When this answer was reported to the king, he abandoned not the plan
which he had formed; he only concluded that some more time was requisite
to quell the obstinacy of the Bretons, and make them submit to reason.
And when he learned that the people of Brittany, anxious for their
duke's safety, had formed a tumultuary army of sixty thousand men, and
had obliged the French to raise the siege of Nantz, he fortified himself
the more in his opinion, that the court of France would at last be
reduced, by multiplied obstacles and difficulties, to abandon the
project of reducing Brittany to subjection. He continued, therefore, his
scheme of negotiation, and thereby exposed himself to be deceived by
the artifices of the French ministry; who, still pretending pacific
intentions, sent Lord Bernard Daubigni, a Scotchman of quality,
to London, and pressed Henry not to be discouraged in offering his
mediation to the court of Brittany. The king, on his part, despatched
another embassy, consisting of Urswic, the abbot of Abingdon, and Sir
Richard Tonstal, who carried new proposals for an amicable treaty. No
effectual succors, meanwhile, were provided for the distressed Bretons.
Lord Woodville, brother to the queen dowager, having asked leave
to raise underhand a body of volunteers, and to transport them into
Brittany, met with a refusal from the king, who was desirous of
preserving the appearance of a strict neutrality. That nobleman,
however, still persisted in his purpose. He went over to the Isle of
Wight, of which he was governor, levied a body of four hundred men; and
having at last obtained, as is supposed, the secret permission of
Henry, sailed with them to Brittany. This enterprise proved fatal to the
leader, and brought small relief to the unhappy duke. The Bretons rashly
engaged in a general action with the French at St. Aubin, and were
discomfited. Woodville and all the English were put to the sword,
together with a body of Bretons, who had been accoutred in the garb of
Englishmen in order to strike a greater terror into the French, to whom
the martial prowess of that nation was always formidable.[*] The duke of
Orleans the prince of Orange, and many other persons of rank were taken
prisoners