In the month of December, the king, to increase his artillery, ordered twelve great bombards to be cast of a prodigious length and weight. Three of them were to be cast at Paris, three at Tours, three at Orleans, and three at Amiens; and at the same time a quantity of iron bullets were cast at the founderies at Creil, of which charge was given to master John de Reilhac his secretary. In the quarries near to Peronne, were also made many stone bullets for the bombards,--and great stores of scaling ladders and small pieces of ordnance were constructed, for the attack of several towns in Flanders and Picardy that remained to be reduced. At this period, king Edward of England, having been assured that his brother the duke of Clarence had intentions of crossing the sea to give assistance to his sister. The widowed duchess of Burgundy, ordered him to be arrested and confined in the tower of London, where he remained for some time. During his confinement, the king assembled his council, who condemned him to be drawn on a sledge from the tower to a gibbet, and thereon hanged,--after which, his entrails were to be thrown into a fire, his head cut off, and his body quartered. But this sentence was changed at the intercession of his mother, and the execution deferred until the month of February following, when he was taken out of prison, and, after he had confessed himself, was thrown alive into a butt of malmsey Madeira, which had one of its ends taken off, and held therein, with his head downwards, until he expired. He was then taken out: his head was cut off, and carried to be buried at the Carmelite's church, beside his duchess, daughter to the late earl of Warwick, who had been slain at the battle of Coventry, at the same time when the prince of Wales, son to the sainted Henry of Lancaster, fell[84].