THE KING OF ENGLAND PREVENTS THE APPROACH OF THE FRENCH ARMY TO RAISE THE SIEGE OF CALAIS, AND THE TOWN SURRENDERS. The King of England, who found he could not conquer Calais but by famine, ordered a large castle to be constructed of strong timbers, in order to shut up the communication with the sea; and he directed it to be built and embattled in such a manner that it could not be destroyed. He placed it between the town and the sea, and fortified it with all sorts of warlike instruments, and garrisoned it with forty men at arms and two hundred archers, who guarded the harbor and port of Calais so closely that nothing could go out or come into the town without being sunk or taken. By this means he more sorely aggrieved the Calesians than by any thing he had hitherto done, and sooner brought famine among them. I will now relate what the King of England had done, and was doing, when he saw with what a prodigious force the King of France was come to raise the siege of Calais, which had cost him so much money and labor. He knew that the town was so nearly famished, that it could hold out but a very short time: therefore it would have sorely hurt him to have been forced at that time to raise it. He considered that the French could neither approach his army nor the town of Calais but by two roads,--the one by the downs along the seashore, the other higher up the country, which, however, was full of ditches and bogs; and there was but one bridge, called the bridge of Nieullet, by which they could be crossed. He posted, therefore, his fleet along the shore, as near as he could to the downs, and provided it with plenty of every warlike engine, so that the French could not pass that way. He sent the Earl of Derby, with a sufficient force of men at arms and archers, to guard the bridge of Nieullet. The French therefore were prevented from advancing thither, unless they attempted crossing the marshes between Sangate and the sea, which were impassable. There was also, nearer to Calais, a high tower, which was guarded by thirty archers from England; and they had fortified it with double ditches, as a stronger defence of the passage over the downs. When the French had taken up their quarters on the hill of Sangate, those from Tournay, who might amount to about fifteen hundred men, advanced toward this tower; the garrison shot at them, and wounded some; but the men of Tournay crossed the ditches, and reached the foot of the tower with pickaxes and bars. The engagement was then very sharp, and many of the Tournay men were killed and wounded; but in the end the tower was taken and thrown down, and all that were within it put to the sword.