Brother Charles, sith you haue spoken at leasure what you would, you must and shall heare againe what you would not. And first, as concerning our entrie into France, no man liuing knoweth that occasion, neither so well, nor hath cause halfe so well to remember it as you: for if you haue not fullie put your greatest things (to be had in memorie) in your box of obliuion, you be not yet out of mind how the French king, for all your power, tooke from you the faire towne of A|miens, and the strong pile of saint Quintins, with diuerse other townes, which you neither durst nor yet were able either to rescue or defend. Since which time, how he hath plagued you, how he hath taken from you your fréends; yea, of your priuie chamber and secret councell (by whome all your secrets be to him reuealed and made open) you know or haue bet|ter cause to remember, and not to forget them. And when you determined to besiege the towne of Nusse, you thought your selfe in a great doubt, whether you should loose more at home by your absence (the French king dreaming and waiting like a for for his preie) or gaine more in Germanie by your power and presence. And to kéepe the woolfe from the fold, that is, the French king from your castels and do|minions, was the cheefe and principall cause whie EEBO page image 698 you so faire praid me, so sore laboured and intised me to passe ouer the sea, promising mounteins of gold, which turned into snow and wasted into water, boa|sting and craking to send horssemen and footmen; and yet shewing neither lackie nor page. If we had made our enterprise for our selfe solie and in our owne qua|rell, thinke you that we would haue expected your comming? If the aduenture had béene for to haue recouered our right, imagine you that we would haue passed the sea so slenderlie as we did, looking for your aid? Nay, nay, you should haue well knowen, if we had intended a conquest, that we would haue so stronglie inuaded & set on the realme of France, that what with sauour of burning of townes, and in|fection of the aier, corrupted by the multitude of dead carcases of our slaine enimies, your countries of Flanders & Brabant should haue had causes enow to woonder at: trusting that that which we had got|ten, we would haue kept as well as anie of our an|cestors haue doone.
But bicause the verie occasion of the warre was yours, and that you wilfullie (I will not saie coward|lie) did not prosecute the same, the French king, who neuer offended me nor my subiects (except in main|teining the earle of Warwike, for the displeasure that you bare him against me) offered me, being de|stitute of all your succour and aid, both honourable and honest ouertures of peace, which offers I was in maner inforced (by verie reason) to incline to and accept, and so haue concluded a truce, which (God willing) I will both keepe and obserue. God send you ioy (quoth the duke) and so abruptlie ended his talke for that time.]
Compare 1577 edition: 1 He departeth [...] king in a rage.H [...]erwith (being in a great rage) he bad the king of England farewell, and suddenlie tooke his horsse, and rode againe to Lutzenburgh, promising not to enter into anie league with the French king, till king Ed|ward was passed the seas againe into England, and had béene there thrée moneths: but this promise was not performed, for of necessitie he tooke a wiser waie, and agréed with the French king vpon a truce im|mediatlie after the departure of the English armie out of his countrie.The consta|ble of France his offer to K. Edward. The constable of France also, doubting that his vntruth would be disclosed to his destruction, by means of this agréement betwéene the kings of England and France, as soone as he heard they were entred into communication there|of, sent to king Edward, requiring him not to credit the French kings promises, which he would no lon|ger obserue, than vntill he should once vnderstand, that he was on the other side of the sea: and rather than he should agrée for want of monie, he offered to lend him fiftie thousand crownes. But the king of England, sith the accord was passed and agréed, would not change anie thing for the promises of so slipper a merchant as he knew the constable to be.
Abr. Fl. ex Edw. Hall. fol. Ccxxxij, Ccxxxiij. ¶Then was the constable in maner on all sides in despaire, but yet he wrote to the French king by his messengers, beséeching him to giue no credit or beléefe to anie tale told or fained against him, with|out hearing his answer, affirming that the king had alwaies knowen his truth and fidelitie toward the crowne of France, and so should he still find him till his dieng daie; promising and warranting him, if that it should stand with his pleasure, that he would so compasse the duke of Burgognie, that they two should vtterlie destroie the king of England and his armie yer they returned. The councellors of the French king made answer, that their master and the king of England were ioined and confedered in a sure amitie. Wherfore they would in no wise know nor condescend to anie thing that might be either preiudiciall, or once sound to the detriment of the Englishmen: but they said, that the king their ma|ster much trusted the constable, and that for his sake he would talke with them in his priuie chamber. The French king, before their entrie into his chamber, caused the lord of Contaie, seruant vnto the duke of Burgognie, accompanied with the lord of Argen|ton, one of his priuie councell, to stand secretlie be|hind a séeling or hanging in his chamber, & he him|selfe sat in a chaire directlie before that place, so that what soeuer were purposed to him, they standing be|hind the cloth, might plainlie sée and easilie heare the same.