On the 9th day of July, the king and the princes left Peronne, on a pilgrimage to our Lady of Cuerlu, and proceeding thence, fixed their quarters on the banks of a river, very near to Miraumont[6]. On the Thursday following, he came before Bapaume, a town belonging to the duke of Burgundy; and at this place the count d'Auxerre was made a knight by the duke of Bourbon, who commanded the van division, and had arrived before Bapaume at break of day. The king also created, with his own hand, the count d'Alençon a knight, as well as some others. The lords de Boissay and de Gaucourt at this time exercised the functions of Boucicaut and de Longny, the two marshals of France. On the king's arrival, he was lodged at a handsome nunnery without the walls, and his army around the place, so that it was soon encompassed on all sides. This town is on an elevated situation, without spring or running water; and as the season was very dry, the soldiers were forced to fetch their water from a rivulet near to Miraumont in bottles, casks, and suchlike vessels, which they transported on cars or otherwise the best way they could, so that they and their horses suffered more from thirst than famine. This caused many to sink wells, and in a few days more than fifty were opened, and the water was so abundant that a horse could be watered for four farthings. It happened, that on a certain day the duke of Acquitaine sent for the chief captains in the town and castle of Bapaume, such as Ferry de Hangest, sir John de Jumont, and Alain d'Anetus, who on their arrival, being asked by the duke why they did not make some overtures to the king for the surrender of the town and castle to their sovereign lord, replied most humbly, that they guarded it for the king and for himself, the king's eldest son, by the orders of the duke of Burgundy.