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he took: Ligny met with the same fate: he next laid siege to St. Disier,
on the Marne, which, though a weak place, made a brave resistance under
the count of Sancerre, the governor, and the siege was protracted beyond
expectation.

The emperor was employed before this town at the time the English forces
were assembled in Picardy. Henry either tempted by the defenceless
condition of the French frontier, or thinking that the emperor had first
broken his engagement by forming sieges, or, perhaps, foreseeing at
last the dangerous consequences of entirely subduing the French power,
instead of marching forward to Paris, sat down before Montreuil and
Boulogne. The duke of Norfolk commanded the army before Montreuil; the
king himself that before Boulogne. Vervin was governor of the latter
place, and under him Philip Corse, a brave old soldier, who encouraged
the garrison to defend themselves to the last extremity against the
English. He was killed during the course of the siege, and the town was
immediately surrendered to Henry by the cowardice of Vervin, who was
afterwards beheaded for this dishonorable capitulation.

During the course of this siege, Charles had taken St. Disier; and
finding the season much advanced, he began to hearken to a treaty of
peace with France, since all his schemes for subduing that kingdom were
likely to prove abortive. In order to have a pretence for deserting
his ally, he sent a messenger to the English camp, requiring Henry
immediately to fulfil his engagements, and to meet him with his army
before Paris. Henry replied, that he was too far engaged in the siege of
Boulogne to raise it with honor, and that the emperor himself had first
broken the concert by besieging St. Disier. This answer served Charles
as a sufficient reason for concluding a peace with Francis at Crepy,
where no mention was made of England. He stipulated to give Flanders as
a dowry to his daughter, whom he agreed to marry to the duke of Orleans,
Francis's second son; and Francis, in return, withdrew his troops from
Piedmont and Savoy, and renounced all claim to Milan, Naples, and
other territories in Italy. This peace, so advantageous to Francis, was
procured partly by the decisive victory obtained in the beginning of the
campaign by the count of Anguyen over the imperialists at Cerisolles in
Piedmont, partly by the emperor's great desire to turn his arms against
the Protestant princes in Germany. Charles ordered his troops t