At this time, the count de Clermont, as lieutenant-general for the king of France in Guienne and the Bordelois, kept his army on the other side of the Gironde. He had with him the count de Foix, the count d'Albreth, the lord d'Orval his son, sir Theaulde de Valpergue bailiff of Lyon, the lord de Saintrailles master of the horse to the king, sir Bernard de Béarn, the viscount de Turenne, the lord de Lavedan, and many other captains, to the number of eight hundred lances and archers, who acted so prudently that the english forces in that country, and in Bordeaux, to the amount of eight thousand combatants, never offered them battle, nor prevented them making prisoners, or destroying convoys of provision and wine. On the 14th day of July, the counts de Clermont, de Foix, and d'Albreth, laid siege to the new castle in Medoc, and remained before it fourteen days. The governor for the king of England was a knight of Gascony, called the lord de l'Isle, who, seeing the impracticability of defending it with success, surrendered it to these lords. The french army was thence marched to besiege Blanquefort[158]; and the count de Foix, with his brother the viscount de Lautrec, separated from it to lay siege to Cadillac[159], while the lord de Saintrailles went before St Macaire[160], and reduced it to the king's obedience. The lord d'Albreth likewise left the siege of Blanquefort, and reduced the towns of Langon[161] and Villendras to obedience,--so that two or three sieges were going on at the same time. To regarrison their conquests, these lords had with them about a thousand lances, and a sufficiency of archers, comprehending the men of the count d'Armagnac, under the command of an esquire called L'ainé de Lange, seneschal of Rouergue. During the siege of Cadillac, the count de Clermont never quitted that of Blanquefort until it had surrendered to him. On the 16th day of July, the king left the city of Angoulême, to join his army in the Bordelois: he was accompanied by the counts of Angoulême, of Maine, of Nevers, of Estampes, of Castres, of Vendôme, and many other barons, knights and esquires, to the town of Libourne. His army was then before Fronsac, which was held by the English, who afterward surrendered it on capitulation of being allowed to go to England,--and they marched out with only staves in their hands. The army then crossed the Dordogne, to subdue the country within the two rivers, and captured many towns from the English. The king advanced to Montferrant, and ordered a blockhouse to be erected against Lormond, near Bordeaux, by a part of his army, while another division was employed on the siege of the town and castle of Cadillac.