pp. 233 _et seq._ P. Champion. _Guillaume de Flavy_, p. 50.]

[Illustration: HENRY VI

_From a portrait in the "Election Chamber" at Eton, reproduced by
permission of the Provost_]

As for the bastions, they were just as little good on the Oise as they
had been on the Loire; everything passed by them. The Burgundians were
unable to invest Compiegne because its circumference was too
great.[2109] They were short of money; and their men-at-arms, for lack
of food and of pay, deserted with that perfect assurance which in
those days characterised alike mercenaries of the red cross and of the
white.[2110] To complete his misfortunes, Duke Philip was obliged to
take away some of the troops engaged in the siege and send them
against the inhabitants of Liege who had revolted.[2111] On the 24th of
October, a relieving army, commanded by the Count of Vendome and the
Marshal de Boussac, approached Compiegne. The English and the
Burgundians having turned to encounter them, the garrison and all the
inhabitants of the town, even the women, fell upon the rear of the
besiegers and routed them.[2112] The relieving army entered Compiegne.
The flaring of the bastions was a fine sight. The Duke of Burgundy
lost all his artillery.[2113] The Sire de Luxembourg, who had come to
Beaurevoir, where he had received the Count Bishop of Beauvais, now
appeared before Compiegne just in time to bear his share in the
disaster.[2114] The same causes which had constrained the English to
depart, as they put it, from Orleans, now obliged the Burgundians to
leave Compiegne. But in those days the most ordinary events must needs
have a supernatural cause assigned to them, wherefore the deliverance
of the town was attributed to the vow of the Count of Vendome, who, in
the cathedral of Senlis, had promised an annual mass to
Notre-Dame-de-la-Pierre if the place were not taken.[2115]

[Footnote 2109: _Le Jouvencel_, vol. i, pp. 49 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2110: _Chronique des cordeliers_, fol. 502 verso. P.
Champion, _Guillaume de Flavy_, proofs and illustrations, xli, xlii,
xliii.]

[Footnote 2111: _Livre des trahisons_, p. 202.]

[Footnote 2112: Monstrelet, vol. iii, pp. 410-415. Lefevre de
Saint-Remy, vol. ii, p. 185. _Livre des trahisons_, p. 202. A. Sorel,
_La prise de Jeanne d'Arc_, proofs and illustrations, xiii, p. 341. P.
Champion, _loc. cit._, p. 176.]

[Footnote 2113: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 418. De La Fons-Melicocq,
_Documents inedits sur le sieg