and English history, during a period of more than a century[6].

[Footnote 6: In 1343, Edward the Third laid siege to this place.
Froissart mentions the English army being drawn out on a hill, in
battle array, near the town. The ground rises a little in this
direction, but, I should suppose, it must have been on the right bank,
as the country there is hilly, and this ancient fortress must have
defended the passage of the river. "The king himself," says the
Chronicle, "with the rest of his army, advanced towards Rennes,
burning and ruining the country on all sides, and was most joyfully
received by the whole army who lay before it, and had been there for
a considerable time. When he had tarried there five days, he learned
that the Lord Charles of Blois was at Nantes, collecting a large force
of men at arms. He set out, therefore, leaving those whom he had found
at Rennes, and came before Nantes, which he besieged as closely as he
could, but was unable to surround it, such was its size and extent.
The marshals, therefore, and their people, overran the country and
destroyed it. The king of England, one day, drew out his army in
battle array on a hill near Nantes, in expectation that the Lord
Charles would come forth and offer him an opportunity of fighting with
him: but, having waited from morning until noon in vain, they returned
to their quarters: the light horse, however, in their retreat,
galloped up to the barriers, and set fire to the suburbs".

"The king of England, during the siege, made frequent skirmishes, but
without success, always losing some of his men; when, therefore, he
found he could gain nothing by his assaults, and that the Lord Charles
would not come out into the plains to fight him, he established there
the Earl of Oxford, Sir Henry Beaumont, the Lord Percy, the Lord Roos,
the Lord Mowbray, the Lord Delawar, Sir Reginald Cobham, Sir John