Calais had for its governor John de Vienne, a valiant and faithful Burgundian knight, “the which, seeing,” says Froissart, “that the King of England was making every sacrifice to keep up the siege, ordered that all sorts of small folk, who had no provisions, should quit the city without further notice.  They went forth on a Wednesday morning, men, women, and children, more than seventeen hundred of them, and passed through King Edward’s army.  They were asked why they were leaving; and they answered, because they had no means of living.  Then the king permitted them to pass, and caused to be given to all of them, male and female, a hearty dinner, and after dinner two shillings apiece, the which grace was commended as very handsome; and so indeed it was.”  Edward probably hoped that his generosity would produce, in the town itself which remained in a state of siege, a favorable impression; but he had to do with a population ardently warlike and patriotic, burghers as well as knights.  They endured for eleven months all the sufferings arising from isolation and famine; though, from time to time, fishermen and seamen in their neighborhood, and amongst others two seamen of Abbeville, the names of whom have been preserved in history, Marant and Mestriel, succeeded in getting victuals in to them.  The King of France made two attempts to relieve them.  On the 20th of May, 1347, he assembled his troops at Amiens; but they were not ready to march till about the middle of July, and as long before as the 23d of June a French fleet of ten galleys and thirty-five trans-ports had been driven off by the English.  John de Vienne wrote to Philip, “Everything has been eaten, cats, dogs, and horses, and we can no longer find victual in the town unless we eat human flesh. . . .  If we have not speedy succor, we will issue forth from the town to fight, whether to live or die, for we would rather die honorably in the field than eat one another. . . .  If a remedy be not soon applied, you will never more have letter from me, and the town will be lost as well as we who are in it.  May our Lord grant you a happy life and a long, and put you in such a disposition that, if we die for your sake, you may settle the account therefor with our heirs!” On the 27th of July Philip arrived in person before Calais.  If Froissart can be trusted, “he had with him full two hundred thousand men, and these French rode up with banners flying as if to fight, and it was a fine sight to see such puissant array; and so, when they of Calais who were on the walls saw them appear and their banners floating on the breeze, they had great joy, and believed that they were going to be soon delivered!  But when they saw camping and tenting going forward they were more angered than before, for it seemed to them an evil sign.”  The marshals of France went about everywhere looking for a passage, and they reported that it was nowhere possible to open a road without exposing the army to