When they had passed the suburbs, they advanced in good array, under the direction of trusty guides, to within half a league of Saint Cloud, where the Armagnacs were quartered. It might be about eight o’clock in the morning when they came thither, and the weather was very cold and frosty. Being thus arrived without the enemy knowing of it, the duke of Burgundy sent the marshal of Burgundy, sir Gaultier des Ruppes, sir Guy de la Trimouille, and le veau de Bar, with eight hundred men at arms, and four hundred archers, across the Seine, toward St Denis, to prevent the enemy from there crossing the river by a new bridge which they had erected over it. These lords so well executed the above orders that they broke down part of the bridge, and defended the passage. The duke, in the mean time, ascended the hill of St Cloud in order of battle, and at the spot where four roads met posted the seneschal of Hainault, sir John de Guistelle, the lord de Brimeu, John Phillips and John Potter[75], english captains, at one of them, with about four hundred knights and esquires, and as many archers. At another road, he stationed the lords de Heilly and de Ront, Enguerrand de Bournouville, and Aymé de Vitry, with as many men as the knights above-mentioned. The third road was guarded by Neville earl of Kent[76], with some picard captains; and the Parisians and others, to a great amount, were ordered to Sevres, to defend that road. When these four divisions had arrived at their posts, they made together a general assault on the town of St Cloud, which the Armagnacs had fortified with ditches and barriers to the utmost of their power. At these barriers, a notable defence was made by those who had heard of the arrival of the enemy, under the command of their captains, namely, sir James de Plachiel, governor of Angoulême, the lord de Cambour, William Batillier, sir Mansart du Bos, the bastard Jacob, knight, and three other knights from Gascony, who fought bravely for some time; but the superiority of numbers, who attacked them vigorously on all sides, forced them to retreat from their outworks, when they were pursued, fighting, however, as they retreated, to the tower of the bridge and the church, which had been fortified. The whole of the burgundian force which had been ordered on this duty, excepting the party who guarded the passage of the bridge, now bent all their efforts against the church. The attack was there renewed with greater vigour than before, and, notwithstanding the gallant defence that was made, the church was stormed, and many were slain in the church as well as at the barriers. Numbers also were drowned of the crowd that was pressing to re-enter the tower of the bridge, by the drawbridge breaking under their weight.