The king of England was at Poissy, and lay in the nunnery there, and kept there the feast of our Lady in August and sat in his robes of scarlet furred with ermines; and after that feast he went forth in order as they were before.  The lord Godfrey of Harcourt rode out on the one side with five hundred men of arms and thirteen[2] hundred archers; and by adventure he encountered a great number of burgesses of Amiens a-horseback, who were riding by the king’s commandment to Paris.  They were quickly assailed and they defended themselves valiantly, for they were a great number and well armed:  there were four knights of Amiens their captains.  This skirmish dured long:  at the first meeting many were overthrown on both parts; but finally the burgesses were taken and nigh all slain, and the Englishmen took all their carriages and harness.  They were well stuffed, for they were going to the French king well appointed, because they had not seen him a great season before.  There were slain in the field a twelve hundred.

      [2] A better reading is ‘twelve.’

Then the king of England entered into the country of Beauvoisis, brenning and exiling the plain country, and lodged at a fair abbey and a rich called Saint-Messien[3] near to Beauvais:  there the king tarried a night and in the morning departed.  And when he was on his way he looked behind him and saw the abbey a-fire:  he caused incontinent twenty of them to be hanged that set the fire there, for he had commanded before on pain of death none to violate any church nor to bren any abbey.  Then the king passed by the city of Beauvais without any assault giving, for because he would not trouble his people nor waste his artillery.  And so that day he took his lodging betime in a little town called Milly.  The two marshals came so near to Beauvais, that they made assault and skirmish at the barriers in three places, the which assault endured a long space; but the town within was so well defended by the means of the bishop, who was there within, that finally the Englishmen departed, and brent clean hard to the gates all the suburbs, and then at night they came into the king’s field.

      [3] Commonly called Saint-Lucien, but Saint Maximianus (Messien)
      is also associated with the place.

The next day the king departed, brenning and wasting all before him, and at night lodged in a good village called Grandvilliers.  The next day the king passed by Dargies:  there was none to defend the castle, wherefore it was soon taken and brent.  Then they went forth destroying the country all about, and so came to the castle of Poix, where there was a good town and two castles.  There was nobody in them but two fair damosels, daughters to the lord of Poix; they were soon taken, and had been violated, an two English knights had not been, sir John Chandos and sir Basset; they defended them and brought them to the king, who for his honour made them good cheer and demanded of them whither they would fainest go.