The constable, on receiving this intelligence, instantly set out, at three o'clock in the morning of the same day, the 18th, to his assistance, although he was but just arrived from Brittany without halting. He rode to Trevieres[80], accompanied by the lord James de Luxembourg, the count de Laval, the lord marshal de Lohéac, and from two hundred to twelve score lances and eight hundred archers. They advanced with great rapidity (for the English had already crossed the ford) until they came to the windmill above Fourmigny, where they drew up in order of battle in sight of the English. The count de Clermont had begun the engagement with his army of a thousand to fifteen hundred men before the arrival of the constable, and had been sharply repulsed by the English, who had taken from them two culverines. The constable first marched his men to gain a stone bridge,--but no sooner did Matago and sir Robert Vere perceive this manœuvre of the constable than they fled with a thousand of their men from Caen and Bayeux. Kiriel and the remainder retreated toward the rivulet, and occupied the village that was hard by. Part of the constable's archers, having dismounted at the end of the bridge, attacked the left wing of the English,--and many were killed and put to the rout. The constable now crossed the rivulet and joined the count de Clermont; when the grand seneschal of Normandy asked his permission to march his division toward the enemy's right wing, which being granted, the English were slain and defeated. The main body of the constable's men marched now in handsome order until they were near the village, and crossed the brook by the high road. The English were so much alarmed that they quitted the village, and advanced to the rivulet, where a well-fought engagement took place; but although the French were in all not more, according to the report of the heralds, than three thousand combatants, and the English from six to seven thousand, nevertheless, by the grace of God, the French defeated them. From the accounts of the heralds, priests, and credible persons, three thousand seven hundred and seventy-three were slain, and buried in fourteen deep trenches on the spot. Among the prisoners were sir Anthony[81] Kiriel, sir Henry Norbery[82], sir Thomas Drieut[83], Thomas Kirby, Christopher Auberton, Arpel, Helix Alengour, Jannequin Vacquier, Gobert Caleville, and numbers of other captains, and english gentlemen bearing coats of arms. Conformably to the old proverb, of 'He who fights and runs away, may live to fight another day,' did those act who fled and left their companions to bear the brunt of the battle, namely, Matago, sir Robert Vere, Henry Lons, master Meillan, and another captain who commanded thirty lances and five hundred archers. The prisoners taken at this battle were estimated at from twelve to fourteen hundred. Matago fled to Bayeux, and sir Robert to Caen,--and thus, by the favour of Divine Providence, were the English defeated.