ford forbade all rejoicings for his
success, Verneuil was surrendered next day by capitulation.[*]

* Monstrelet. vol. ii. p. 15.

The condition of the king of France now appeared very terrible, and
almost desperate. He had lost the flower of his army and the bravest
of his nobles in this fatal action: he had no resource either for
recruiting or subsisting his troops; he wanted money even for his
personal subsistence; and though all parade of a court was banished, it
was with difficulty he could keep a table, supplied with the plainest
necessaries, for himself and his few followers: every day brought
him intelligence of some loss or misfortune: towns which were bravely
defended, were obliged at last to surrender for want of relief or
supply: he saw his partisans entirely chased from all the provinces
which lay north of the Loire: and he expected soon to lose, by the
united efforts of his enemies, all the territories of which he had
hitherto continued master; when an incident happened which saved him
on the brink of ruin, and lost the English such an opportunity for
completing their conquests, as they never afterwards were able to
recall.

Jacqueline, countess of Hainault and Holland, and heir of these
provinces, had espoused John, duke of Brabant cousin-german to the
duke of Burgundy; but having made this choice from the usual motives of
princes, she soon found reason to repent of the unequal alliance. She
was a princess of a masculine spirit and uncommon understanding: the
duke of Brabant was of a sickly complexion and weak mind: she was in the
vigor of her age; he had only reached his fifteenth year: these
causes had inspired her with such contempt for her husband, which soon
proceeded to antipathy that she determined to dissolve a marriage,
where, it is probable, nothing but the ceremony had as yet intervened.
The court of Rome was commonly very open to applications of this nature,
when seconded by power and money; but as the princess foresaw great
opposition from her husband's relations, and was impatient to effect her
purpose, she made her escape into England, and threw herself under
the protection of the duke of Glocester. That prince, with many noble
qualities had the defect of being governed by an impetuous temper and
vehement passions; and he was rashly induced, as well by the charms
of the countess herself, as by the prospect of possessing her rich
inheritance, to offer himself to her as a husband. Wit