The next day the king and his whole army marched forward, burning and wasting all the country as they went, and lay that night at a village called Grandvillier. On the morrow he passed near to Argis: his scouts not finding any one to guard the castle, he attacked and burnt it, and, passing on, destroyed the country, and came to Poix, which was a handsome town with two castles. The lords of both were absent, and no one was there but two handsome daughters of the Lord of Poix. In order more effectually to guard them, they brought them to the king, who, as in honor bound, entertained them most graciously. He inquired whither they would wish to go. They answered, to Corbie, to which place they were conducted in safety. The King of England lay that night in the town of Poix. The inhabitants of Poix, as well as those of the castle, had a conference with the marshals of the army, in order to save the town from being plundered and burnt. They offered to pay, as a ransom, a certain number of florins the ensuing day, as soon as the army should have marched off. On the morrow morning the king and army departed, except some few who remained behind, by order of the marshals, to receive the ransom from the townsmen. When the inhabitants were assembled together, and considered the small number of the English who were left with them, they resolved to pay nothing, told them so, and directly fell upon them. The English defended themselves gallantly, and sent after the army for succor. When Lord Reginald Cobham and Sir Thomas Holland, who commanded the rear-guard, were told of this, they cried out, “Treason! treason!” and returned back to Poix, where they found their countrymen still engaged with the townsmen. Almost all the inhabitants were slain, the town was burnt, and the two castles razed to the ground. The English then followed the king’s army, which was arrived at Airaines, where he had ordered the troops to halt, and to quarter themselves for that night, strictly commanding, under pain of death, that no harm should be done to the town or inhabitants by theft or otherwise; for he wished to remain there a day or two in order to gain information where he could best cross the river Somme,--which he was under the necessity of doing, as you will shortly hear. CHAPTER LI. THE KING OF FRANCE PURSUES THE KING OF ENGLAND, IN THE COUNTRY OF BEAUVAIS.