When the English heard of these towns being lost, the archbishop of Bordeaux and the magistrates sent a pursuivant at arms to the king of France at Chinon, to request that Coignac and St Maigrin might be restored, and that he would send them passports, pretending that they would come to him; but nothing was done, for reasons known to the king and his council. In like manner, the duke of Somerset and lord Talbot sent to the king at Chinon, to require that the towns of Pont de l'Arche, Conches, Coignac and St Maigrin should be restored; to which the king answered, that if they would restore to his nephew of Brittany his town of Fougeres, and the effects taken away from thence, he would exert his endeavours that the duke of Brittany should give back the places that had been won by him, or by those who had taken them on his advice. The english ambassadors said that they had no powers to interfere in the surrender of Fougeres, and therefore returned to the duke of Somerset at Rouen without effecting any thing. Soon afterwards, another conference was holden at the abbey of Bonport[154], when the commissioners from France made offer to those on the part of England, that if they would, on a day to be appointed, surrender, for the duke of Brittany, the town and castle of Fougeres into the hands of the king of France, and pay the sum of sixteen hundred thousand crowns, the estimated value of the damages, all places that had been taken from the English should be restored, and even the lord Falconbridge, who had been made prisoner at Pont de l'Arche, and that all hostilities should cease on both sides. This the English refused; and the french commissioners returned to their king as before. King Charles, having heard the report of all that had passed, and examined the instruments drawn up by the apostolical notaries, stating the damages the English had done to his relative the duke of Brittany: that they had very frequently infringed the truce, without making any reparations of restitution of places or effects, and their peremptory refusal of all the offers he had made them for the preservation of peace and the satisfaction of his conscience; resolved, after mature deliberation, that having done his duty most loyally, and the English obstinately refusing all his offers for peace, he was fully justified in taking every proper step for the defence of his country and of his allies, as well as for the recovery of such places as had been conquered from him or from his predecessors, the possession of which the English had so long usurped. He was advised to declare war against them, which would be just in the eyes of God, of reason, and of his conscience, otherwise he would not do his duty. It was concluded, that he should send ambassadors to the duke of Brittany, to concert measures accordingly. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 148: Two bretons and a placque,--small coins of Brittany and France.]