most unshaken
fidelity, being the descendants of an English colony settled there
shortly after the first conquest, it should also be guarded by one of
the most trusty barons which the King has, bearing the title of deputy,
with a force of five hundred of the best soldiers, besides a troop of
fifty horsemen. It is considered by everyone as an impregnable fortress,
on account of the inundation with which it may be surrounded, although
there are persons skilled in the art of fortification who doubt that it
would prove so if put to the test. For the same reason Guines is also
reckoned impregnable, situated about three miles more inland, on the
French frontier, and guarded with the same degree of care, though, being
a smaller place, only by a hundred fifty men, under a chief governor.
The same is done with regard to a third place, called Hammes, situated
between the two former, and thought to be of equal importance, the
waters which inundate the country being collected around."

Ninety years later Calais was regarded in a very different light: "Now
it is gone, let it go. It was but a beggarly town, which cost England
ten times yearly more than it was worth in keeping thereof, as by the
accounts in the exchequer doth plainly appear."

The expedition against Calais was undertaken upon a report of the
dilapidated condition of the works and the smallness of its garrison. It
was not "an impregnable fortress," as Micheli says it was considered.
The Duke of Guise commenced his attack on January 2d, when he stormed
and took the castle of Ruysbank, which commanded the approach by water.
On the 3d he carried the castle of Newenham bridge, which commanded the
approach by land. He then commenced a cannonade of the citadel, which
surrendered on the 6th. On the 7th the town capitulated. Lord Wentworth,
the Governor, and fifty others remained as prisoners. The English
inhabitants, about four thousand, were ejected from the home which they
had so long colonized, but without any exercise of cruelty. "The
Frenchmen," say the chroniclers, "entered and possessed the town; and
forthwith all the men, women, and children were commanded to leave their
houses and to go to certain places appointed for them to remain in, till
order might be taken for their sending away.

"The places thus appointed for them to remain in were chiefly four, the
two churches of Our Lady and St. Nicholas, the deputy's house, and the
stable, where they rested a great par