These wicked people, without leader and without arms, plundered and burnt all the houses they came to. He who committed the most atrocious actions, and such as no human creature would have imagined, was the most applauded, and considered as the greatest man among them. I dare not write the horrible and inconceivable atrocities they committed. They had chosen a king among them, who came from Clermont in Beauvoisis; he was elected as the worst of the bad, and they denominated him Jacques Bonhomme.[28] These wretches burnt and destroyed in the county of Beauvoisis, and at Corbie, Amiens, and Montdidier, upward of sixty good houses and strong castles. By the acts of such traitors in the country of Brie and thereabout, it behooved every lady, knight, and squire, having the means of escape, to fly to Meaux, if they wished to preserve themselves from being insulted and afterwards murdered. The Duchess of Normandy, the Duchess of Orleans, and many other ladies, had adopted this course to save themselves. These cursed people thus supported themselves in the countries between Paris, Noyon, and Soissons, and in all the territory of Coucy, in the county of Valois. In the bishoprics of Noyon, Laon, and Soissons, there were upward of one hundred castles, and good houses of knights and squires, destroyed. CHAPTER LXXXIX. THE BATTLE OF MEAUX IN BRIE, WHERE THE VILLAINS ARE DISCOMFITED BY THE EARL OF FOIX AND THE CAPTAL OF BUCH. At the time these wicked men were overrunning the country, the Earl of Foix, and his cousin the Captal of Buch, were returning from a croisade in Prussia. They were informed, on their entering France, of the distress the nobles were in; and they learnt at the city of Chalons, that the Duchess of Orleans, and three hundred other ladies, under the protection of the Duke of Orleans, were fled to Meaux on account of these disturbances. The two knights resolved to go to the assistance of these ladies, and to re-enforce them with all their might, notwithstanding the Captal was attached to the English; but at that time there was a truce between the two kings. They might have in their company about sixty lances. They were most cheerfully received, on their arrival at Meaux, by the ladies and damsels; for these Jacks and peasants of Brie had heard what number of ladies, married and unmarried, and young children of quality, were in Meaux: they had united themselves with those of Valois, and were on their road thither. On the other hand, those of Paris had also been informed of the treasures Meaux contained, and had set out from that place in crowds. Having met the others, they amounted together to nine thousand men: their forces were augmenting every step they advanced.