In this year, the duke of Burgundy assembled about sixteen hundred combatants, whom he marched toward Calais, to cover and defend against the English a very great number of pioneers, carpenters and labourers, who had been sent thither to break down and destroy a sea-dyke, in order to drown the town of Calais and the surrounding country. The duke had been made to believe that this was possible to be done, and the town destroyed; but when the pioneers had worked a short space of time, they found that it was a work not easily accomplished, the enterprise was therefore abandoned; but they broke down the bridge of Nieulay, and some small dykes, which did very little harm to the English. CHAP. XXVI. THE KING OF FRANCE COMPELS RODERIGO DE VILLANDRAS, WHO WAS COMMITTING GREAT WASTE ON HIS TERRITORIES, TO MARCH AWAY AND MAKE WAR ON THE ENGLISH. King Charles of France, in the course of this year, learnt that many of his captains were grievously harrassing divers parts of his kingdom, and that they kept large bodies of armed men under their command to overrun the provinces. The principal among them was Roderigo de Villandras, who had upwards of six hundred horse under his orders. The king sent him his commands to quit his territories immediately, and to make war on those of the English, but he refused obedience to them. On this, the king, who was at Bourges in Berry, assembled an army to march against him in person, and force him to obey him; but Roderigo, having had information of the king's intentions, retreated toward Toulouse, and thence advanced into Guienne, where in conjunction with some of that country, he again collected a considerable force. He carried on a severe warfare against the English, to their great loss, and won from them many towns and castles, which he garrisoned with his own men. He entered Medoc, and advanced as far as Soulac[22], destroying the country, which he found very rich in all sorts of commodities. In like manner he conquered the territory of Blanchefort, and came to a fort called Châtel-neuf, belonging to the Captal de Buch, which he took by storm. He was soon after joined by the lord d'Albreth with a strong power of men at arms, when they advanced nearer Bourdeaux, and took the church of St Severin, which is but a bow-shot distant from that city. There they quartered themselves, and in the course of the night placed a strong ambuscade among the vineyards close to the town--for the vines there are as high as an arbour--and on the morrow pretended to decamp. The Bourdelois, seeing this, sallied out in great numbers, to the amount of full two thousand, and were surprised by those in ambush, when a sharp conflict took place, which lasted a long time, for it was desperately contested by each party; but the French were superior in numbers,--and the English were forced to retire into Bourdeaux, after leaving about eight hundred dead on the field.