rrison in it, and
expelled all the French inhabitants, with an intention of peopling it
anew with English.

* Rymer, vol. ix. p. 303.

** St. Remi, chap. lv. Godwin, p. 65

The fatigues of this siege, and the unusual heat of the season, had
so wasted the English army, that Henry could enter on no further
enterprise; and was obliged to think of returning into England. He had
dismissed his transports, which could not anchor in an open road upon
the enemy's coasts; and he lay under a necessity of marching by land to
Calais, before he could reach a place of safety. A numerous French army
of fourteen thousand men at arms and forty thousand foot, was by this
time assembled in Normandy under the constable D'Albret; a force which,
if prudently conducted, was sufficient either to trample down the
English in the open field, or to harass and reduce to nothing their
small army, before they could finish so long and difficult a march.
Henry, therefore, cautiously offered to sacrifice his conquest of
Harfleur for a safe passage to Calais; but his proposal being rejected,
he determined to make his way by valor and conduct through all the
opposition of the enemy.[*] That he might not discourage his army by the
appearance of flight, or expose them to those hazards which naturally
attend precipitate marches, he made slow and deliberate journeys,[*]
till he reached the Somme, which he purposed to pass at the ford of
Blanquetague, the same place where Edward, in a like situation, had
before escaped from Philip de Valois. But he found the ford rendered
impassable by the precaution of the French general, and guarded by a
strong body on the opposite bank;[*] and he was obliged to march higher
up the river, in order to seek for a safe passage. He was continually
harassed on his march by flying parties of the enemy; saw bodies of
troops on the other side ready to oppose every attempt; his provisions
were cut off; his soldiers languished with sickness and fatigue; and his
affairs seemed to be reduced to a desperate situation; when he was so
dexterous or so fortunate as to seize, by surprise, a passage near St.
Quintin, which had not been sufficiently guarded; and he safely carried
over his army.[**]

* Le Laboureur, liv. xxxv. chap. 6. * T. Livii, p. 12

** St. Remi, chap, 58. * T. Livii, p. 13

Henry then bent his march northwards to Calais; but he was still exposed
to great and imminent danger from the enemy, who had