mployed the little shepherd, Guillaume, from the Lozere Mountains,
who, like Saint Francis of Assisi and Saint Catherine of Sienna, had
received stigmata. A party of French surprised the Regent at Mantes
and were on the point of taking him prisoner. The alarm was given to
the army besieging Louviers; and two or three companies of men-at-arms
were despatched. They hastened to Mantes, where they learnt that the
Regent had succeeded in reaching Paris. Thereupon, having been
reinforced by troops from Gournay and certain other English garrisons,
being some two thousand strong and commanded by the Earls of Warwick,
Arundel, Salisbury, and Suffolk, and by Lord Talbot and Sir Thomas
Kiriel, the English made bold to march upon Beauvais. The French,
informed of their approach, left the town at daybreak, and marched out
to meet them in the direction of Savignies. King Charles's men,
numbering between eight hundred and one thousand combatants, were
commanded by the Marechal de Boussac, the Captains La Hire, Poton, and
others.[2594]

[Footnote 2592: _Trial_, vol. ii, pp. 3, 344, 348, 373; vol. iii, p.
189; vol. v, pp. 169, 179, 181. Dibon, _Essai sur Louviers_, Rouen,
1836, in 8vo, pp. 33 _et seq._ Vallet de Viriville, _Histoire de
Charles VII_, vol. ii, pp. 246 _et seq._]

[Footnote 2593: Le P. Denifle, _La desolation des eglises de France
vers le milieu du XV'e siecle_, vol. i, p. xvi.]

[Footnote 2594: Jean Chartier, _Chronique_, vol. i, p. 132. Monstrelet,
vol. iv, p. 433. Lefevre de Saint-Remy, vol. ii, p. 265.]

The shepherd Guillaume, whom they believed to be sent of God, was at
their head, riding side-saddle and displaying the miraculous wounds in
his hands, his feet, and his left side.[2595]

[Footnote 2595: _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 272.]

When they were about two and a half miles from the town, just when
they least expected it, a shower of arrows came down upon them. The
English, informed by their scouts of the French approach, had lain in
wait for them in a hollow of the road. Now they attacked them closely
both in the van and in the rear. Each side fought valiantly. A
considerable number were slain, which was not the case in most of the
battles of those days, when few but the fugitives were killed. But the
French, feeling themselves surrounded, were seized with panic, and
thus brought about their own destruction. Most of them, with the
Marechal de Boussac and Captain La Hire, fled to the town of Beauva