mefTcngers with letters, to remonftrate with hiâ how il he was conducting himfclf by not keeping thofe promifes and argreements he had fworn to fo folemnly when in the city of Rennes. To all thefe letters the carl did not receive one anfwer: the Englifh fuppofed the meflertgers to have been llain, for none returned ; and in truth there was great danger to all who travelled between Nantes and Hennebon, unlefs they were ftrongly efcorted. The roads were fo ftridly guarded by men at arms* no one could pafs without being taken, or his bufi-nefs known ; and, if there were found upon himt letters from the Englifh to the duke, or from the duke to them, the bearer was fure to be put to " death. In addition to this, the foragers of the army dared not venture abroad but in large companies ; for the knights and fquires of the country had af -fembled, and would not fuffer their lands to be overrun and pillaged, fo that, whenever they fell in with bodies of twenty or thirty, they took all they had and their horfes from rhem, befides wounding or killing them. Thi? much enraged the army^ but they knew not on whom to revenge themfelves. To fay the truth, the duke of Brittany did every thing he could to make his people confent to follow him to the fiege of Nantes, according to the agree-ment he had entered into with thfe.earl of Bucking-ham \t Rennes : but he could not fucceed. Even the barons, knights and fquires told him plainly they would not affift in the deftruftion of their country for the fake of England, and would never arm themfelves in his behalf fo long as the Englifh remained MB •