They also insisted, among other extravagant demands, that an order should be proclaimed, forbidding any beer to be brewed within three leagues of Ghent; but as the sheriffs and other municipal officers had intermixed among them, with the banner of France displayed, in the Friday market-place, and had addressed them in moderate and good-humoured terms, telling them, that they would consider on their demands, and provide for them in such wise that they should be contented, the mob dispersed quietly to their homes, and laid down their arms. Many councils were held by the sheriffs and magistrates on these requisitions, which were declared useless, and impossible to be carried into effect. They likewise resolved to leave things in the state in which they had prospered so long, without making any unreasonable reformation. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 1: 'Walter earl of Athol had innumerable favours and honours conferred upon him by the king and royal family, yet he was the chief actor in that horrid murder of his nephew king James I. for which he was most justly condemned and executed, and all his estates and honours were forfeited to the crown. The title of Athol was suspended till king James II. bestowed it upon his uterine brother, sir John Stewart of Balveny,' &c.--_Douglas's Peerage of Scotland._] [Footnote 2: Lord chancellor of Scotland.] [Footnote 3: 'William VI. earl of Douglas, third duke of Touraine, &c. a youth of a fine genius and noble spirit, and of great expectation. Soon after his father's death, he came to a meeting of the parliament at Edinburgh with a splendid and numerous retinue, and behaved with all due obedience and submission. He was in great favour with the young king, and gave all the marks of a sincere, generous and loyal disposition. However, it seems his grandeur made him be looked upon with a jealous eye by the faction at the time, though he was then only about sixteen years of age. He and his young brother were invited to an entertainment in the castle of Edinburgh by chancellor Crichton. They went without the least suspicion or distrust, and were both barbarously assassinated, with their trusty friend sir Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld, in the king's presence, who had the tragical event in the utmost abhorrence, and wept bitterly, but had not the power to prevent it. This happened on the 24th November 1440.'--_Douglas's Peerage of Scotland._] [Footnote 4: Combrebant. This must be meant for sir Malcolm Fleming of Cumbernauld.] [Footnote 5: Mr Pinkerton says, that Margaret was married to the dauphin,--Isabel to Francis duke of Brittany,--Eleanor to Sigismund archduke of Austria, Mary to the count de Boucquan, son to the lord of Campvere,--Jean to the earl of Angus, and afterwards to the earl of Morton. See note p. 142. Hist. of Scotland.] CHAP. II. LA HIRE, POTON, WITH MANY OTHER FRENCH CAPTAINS, ARE NEAR TAKING ROUEN. THEY ARE ATTACKED AND DEFEATED BY THE ENGLISH, WHO SURPRISE THEM IN THEIR QUARTERS.