He also solicited the assistance of his good towns in Flanders, and requested that they would powerfully exert themselves in his favour, to which they readily and liberally assented. They raised a body of forty or fifty thousand combatants, well armed and provided with staves according to the custom of the country. They had twelve thousand carriages, as well carts as cars, to convey their armour, baggage and artillery, and a number of very large cross-bows, called ribaudequins, placed on two wheels, each having a horse to draw it. They had also machines for the attack of towns, behind which were long iron spits, to be used toward the close of a battle,--and on each of them was mounted one or two pieces of artillery. The duke of Burgundy had also summoned to his assistance the duke of Brabant, his brother, who attended him with a handsome company; as did likewise a valiant english knight, named sir William Baldock, lieutenant of Calais, with about three hundred english combatants. Their places of rendezvous were at the towns of Douay and Arras, and the adjacent country. The duke of Burgundy, on quitting Douay with his brother of Brabant and great multitudes of men of rank, advanced to Sluys, belonging to the count de la Marche, where he lodged. On the morrow, the first day of September, he marched away early, and fixed his quarters on the plain near to Marcouin, where he had his tents and pavilions pitched, and waited there two days for the arrival of his whole army, and particularly for his Flemings, who came in grand parade, and drew up to their quarters in handsome array.--So numerous were their tents that their encampments looked like large towns; and in truth, when all were assembled, they amounted to sixty thousand fighting men, without including the varlets, and such like, who were numberless,--and the whole country resounded with the noises they made. With regard to the Flemings, they thought that no towns or fortresses could withstand them; and the duke of Burgundy was obliged, on their setting off, to abandon to them whatever they might conquer; and when they went from one quarter to another, they were commonly all fully armed, and in companies, according to the different towns and the custom of Flanders,--and even when they marched on foot, the greater part wore leg-armour.