felves from tliefe captains* by paying theni a certain number of florins weekly: on any other conditions they would have been burnt and deftroyed, for thefe ruffians yvere very cruel to their enemies, i From fuch' caufes as tliefe, the lands were' uncul-tivated; for no one dared to till them; fo that very great fcarcity foon added to the difafters • un-der which the kingdom already laboured. ••. CHAP. CLXXXVIL THE NAVARROIS ARE BESIEGED IN THE CASTLE OF MAUCONSÊIL, BY THE MEN -OF PICAROY. HEN the duke of Normandy, who redded ai Paris, heard that thefe men at arms were de-ftroying the country, under the name of the king of Navarre, and that their numbers were daily in* creating, he fent to aU the principal towns in Pi-car dy and Vermandois, to require that each fhould, according to his proportion, fend a certain number of men at arms, on foot and on horfeback, to op-pofe the Navarrois, who were ruining the kingdom of which he had the government. The citiqs aad chief towns willingly complied with his requefi; they taxed themfelves, according to their fortunes* with men at arms, both horfe and foot, archers and crofs-bowmen. Thefe advanced firft toward the good city of Noyon, making ftraight for the garrifon of Mau-confeil, becaufe they, thought this the weakeû of I ' the ' 418 .