hich he escorted with a detachment of
two thousand five hundred men; when he was attacked by a body of four
thousand French, under the command of the counts of Clermont and Dunois.
Fastolffe drew up his troops behind the wagons; but the French generals,
afraid of attacking him in that posture, planted a battery of cannon
against him; which threw every thing into confusion, and would have
insured them the victory, had not the impatience of some Scottish
troops, who broke the line of battle, brought on an engagement, in which
Fastolffe was victorious. The count of Dunois was wounded; and about
five hundred French were left on the field of battle. This action, which
was of great importance in the present conjuncture, was commonly called
the battle of Herrings; because the convoy brought a great quantity of
that kind of provisions, for the use of the English army during the Lent
season.[*]

Charles seemed now to have but one expedient for saving this city, which
had been so long invested. The duke of Orleans, who was still prisoner
in England, prevailed on the protector and the council to consent that
all his demesnes should be allowed to preserve a neutrality during the
war, and should be sequestered, for greater security, into the hands
of the duke of Burgundy. This prince, who was much less cordial in the
English interests than formerly, went to Paris, and made the proposal to
the duke of Bedford; but the regent coldly replied, that he was not of a
humor to beat the bushes while others ran away with the game; an answer
which so disgusted the duke, that he recalled all the troops of Burgundy
that acted in the siege.[**]

* Hall, fol. 100. Monstrelet, vol. ii. p. 41, 42. Stowe, p.
369. Holingshed, p. 600. Polyd. Virg. p. 469. Grafton, p.
532.

** Hall, fol. 106. Monstrelet, vol. ii. p. 42. Stowe, p. 369.
Grafton, p. 533

This place, however, was every day more and more closely invested by
the English: great scarcity began already to be felt by the garrison and
inhabitants: Charles, in despair of collecting an army which should dare
to approach the enemy's intrenchments, not only gave the city for lost,
but began to entertain a very dismal prospect with regard to the general
state of his affairs. He saw that the country in which he had hitherto
with great difficulty subsisted, would be laid entirely open to the
invasion of a powerful and victorious enemy; and he already entertained
thoughts of