CHAP. XI. rm mm OF bourbon TAKES verteuil in • POITOU,- âSm RETURNS TO THE IMG OF FRANCE- AT f AEIS. TYURING the time theking was before Damme, the duke of Bourbon, with a handfome body of men at arms, made his excurfion into Poitou and Limoufin, where he took many Eng. lifli cailles and forts, fuch as Archeac, Garnate, Montheu eight leagues from Bourdeanx, and Taillebourg on the Charente : he then laid fiege to Verteuil, a ftrong caftle in Poitou, on the borders of Limoufin and Saintonge. Andrew Pinas, an Englifhman, and Bertrand de Montrinet, a Gafcon, were governors ofVer-teuil, and had with them numbers of ftout com- ' panions. There were ikirmishes, therefore, al-moft daily at the barriers, and many gallant deeds of arms done, in which feveral were flain or wounded. The duke declared he would not move %m thence until he was matter of the caftle, for to this effect had he given his promife the laft time he had converfed with the duke of Berry. It happened that while Bertrand de Montrinet, one of the governors, was planning a ditch to be made within the caftle to add to its ftrength, and t {hewing his people how to bank it, a ftone, fhot from a dondaine* by the befiegers wounded him • D0DdaiD^-* machine to throw Ames from. mortally, m