and
illustrations, xliv, xlv.]

Noble pieces of artillery did the Duke bring to that siege; notably,
Remeswelle, Rouge Bombarde and Houppembiere, from all three of which
were fired stone balls of enormous size. Mortars, which the Duke had
brought and paid ready money for to Messire Jean de Luxembourg, were
brought likewise; Beaurevoir and Bourgogne, also a great "_coullard_"
and a movable engine of war. The vast states of Burgundy sent their
archers and cross-bowmen to Compiegne. The Duke provided himself with
bows from Prussia and from Caffa in Georgia,[1981] and with arrows
barbed and unbarbed. He engaged sappers and miners to lay powder mines
round the town and to throw Greek fire into it. In short my Lord
Philip, richer than a king, the most magnificent lord in Christendom
and skilled in all the arts of knighthood, was resolved to make a
gallant siege.[1982]

[Footnote 1981: "In this country the Emperor [of Constantinople] has a
city called Capha, which is a seaport belonging to the Genoese and
whence is obtained wood for the making of bows and cross-bows,
likewise wine called Rommenie." _Le Livre de description des pays de
Gilles le Bouvier._ Ed. E.T. Hamy, Paris, 1908, p. 90.]

[Footnote 1982: De La Fons-Melicocq, _Documents inedits sur le siege de
Compiegne de 1430_ in _La Picardie_, vol. iii, 1857, pp. 22, 23. P.
Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_. Proofs and illustrations, p. 176.]

[Illustration: PHILIP, DUKE OF BURGUNDY]

The town, then one of the largest and strongest in France, was
defended by a garrison of between four and five hundred men,[1983]
commanded by Guillaume de Flavy. Scion of a noble house of that
province, forever in dispute with the nobles his neighbours, and
perpetually picking quarrels with the poor folk, he was as wicked and
cruel as any Armagnac baron.[1984] The citizens would have no other
captain, and in that office they maintained him in defiance of King
Charles and his chamberlains. They did wisely, for none was better
able to defend the town than my Lord Guillaume, none was more set on
doing his duty. When the King of France had commanded him to deliver
the place he had refused point-blank; and when later the Duke promised
him a good round sum and a rich inheritance in exchange for Compiegne,
he made answer that the town was not his, but the King's.[1985]

[Footnote 1983: Lefevre de Saint-Remy, vol. ii, p. 178. H. de Lepinois,
_Notes extraites des archives communales de Compiegne_