While these preparations were going forward, and during the residence of the King of France at Arras, great bodies of men at arms were assembling in the Tourneois, Artois, and castlewick of Lille and its neighborhood. Some knights and squires who resided at Lille and thereabout resolved to perform feats of arms that should gain them renown, chiefly through the exhortations of the Haze de Flanders. They collected about sixscore knights and squires, and crossed the river Lis at Pont-Amenin, which was not then broken down, two leagues from Lille. They rode for the town of Harle, which they surprised; and, after slaying many in the town and environs, they drove the remainder out of the town. Their cries were heard in the neighboring villages; the inhabitants of which sounded their alarm-bells, and marched toward Harle and Pont-Amenin, whence the cries seemed to come. When the Haze, Sir John Jumont, the Constable de Vuillon, Sir Henry Duffle, and the other knights and squires, had sufficiently alarmed the country, they thought it was time for them to retreat, and set out on their return, intending to repass the bridge; but they found it strongly occupied by Flemings, who were busily employed in destroying it; and when they had broken down any parts they covered them with straw, that the mischief might not be perceived. The knights and squires at this moment arrived, mounted on the best of horses, and found upward of two thousand peasants drawn up in a body without the town, prepared to advance upon them. The gentlemen, on seeing this, formed; and, having fixed their lances on their rests, those best mounted instantly charged this body of peasants, with loud shouts. The Flemings opened their ranks through fear, but others say through malice; for they well knew the bridge would not bear them, and they said among themselves, “Let us make way for them, and we shall soon see fine sport.”