All these speeches, the treatment of the messenger, the contents of the letters, and the perilous situation of Auberoche, were known to the Earl of Derby by means of a spy he had in the French army. The earl therefore sent orders to the Earl of Pembroke in Bergerac to meet him at an appointed place and hour; and also to the Lord Stafford and Sir Stephen Tombey, who were at Libourne. The Earl of Derby then, accompanied by Sir Walter Manny and the forces he had with him, took the road to Auberoche as secretly as possible; for he had guides who were acquainted with all the by-roads. They came to Libourne, where they waited a whole day for the Earl of Pembroke; but hearing no tidings of him, and being impatient to succor their friends who were so distressed, the Earl of Derby, the Earl of Oxford, Sir Walter Manny, Sir Richard Hastings, Sir Stephen Tombey, the Lord Ferrers, and other knights, set out from Libourne: riding all night, they came on the morrow within two leagues of Auberoche. They entered a wood; when, alighting from their horses, they tied them to the trees, and allowed them to pasture, in expectation of the arrival of the Earl of Pembroke. They waited all that morning, and until noon, in vain, not knowing what to do; for they were but three hundred lances and six hundred archers, and the French were from ten to twelve thousand men. They thought it would be cowardice to suffer their friends to be lost, when they were so near them. At last Sir Walter Manny said, “Gentlemen, let us who are now here mount our horses, skirt this wood, and advance until we come to their camp: when we shall be close to it, we will stick spurs into our horses, and, with loud shouts, fall upon them. It will be about their hour for supper; and we shall see them so much discomfited, that they can never rally again.” The knights present replied that they would all do as he had proposed. Each went to his horse, re-girthed him, and tightened his armor: they ordered their pages, servants, and baggage to remain where they were.