This found I true: for through my milde behauiour, Their hartes I had with mee to liue and die, And in their speach bewrayer of[620] theyr fauour, They cald mee still good earle of _Salisbury_,[621] The lordes confest the[622] commons did not lye: For vertuous life, free hart, and lowly minde, With high and lowe shall alwayes fauour finde. 19. Which vertues chiefe become a man of warre, Whereof in _Fraunce_ I found experience: For in assautes due mildnes passeth farre All rigour, force, and sturdy violence: For men will stoutly sticke to their defence, When cruell captaines couet after spoile,[623] And so enforst, oft geue theyr foes the foile. 20. But when they knowe they shal be frendly vsed, They hazard not their heades but rather yeelde: For this my offers neuer were refused Of any towne, or surely very seelde: But force and furies fyt bee for the fielde, And there in deede I vsed so the same, My foes would flye if they but[624] heard my name. 21. For whan lord _Steward_ and earle _Vantadore_ Had cruelly besieged _Crauant_ towne, Which we[625] had wonne, and kept long time before Which lieth in _Awxer_ on the riuer _Youne_, To raise the siege the regent sent mee downe:[626] Where, as I vsed all rigour that I might, I killed all that were not saued by flight. 22. When th’erle of _Bedford_, then in _Fraunce_ lord regent, Knewe in what sort I had remoued the siege,[627] In _Brye_ and _Champayne_ hee made mee vicegerent, And lieutenaunt for him and for my liege: Which caused mee to goe[628] to _Brye_, and there besiege _Mountaguillon_ with twenty weekes assaut, Which at the last was yeelded mee for naught.[629] 23. And for the duke of _Britayne’s_ brother, _Arthur_, Both earle of _Richmond_ and of _Yuery_, Against his oth from vs had made departure, To _Charles_ the _Dolphin_ our chiefe enemy, I with the regent went to _Normandy_, To take his towne of _Yuery_ which of spight, Did to vs daily all the harme they might. 24. They at the first compounded by a day To yeelde, if rescues did not come before, And while in hope to fight, wee at it lay, The dolphin gathered men two thousand score, With earles, lordes,[630] and captaynes ioly store: Of which the duke of _Alanson_ was guide, And sent them downe to see if wee would bide. 25.