On Saturday morning, the 14th of March, the king, who then resided at Plessis du Parc, formerly called Montils les Tours, set off very early, and with few attendants, for Bordeaux and Bayonne. That no person living might follow him, he ordered the gates of Tours to be closed until ten o'clock had struck, and had a bridge broken down near to Tours, to prevent any one crossing the river. For further security, he commanded the lord de Gaucourt, the captain of the gentlemen in his household, to remain in Tours for the same purpose. On the 7th of April, just before Easter, the younger son of the count d'Albret, who had betrayed the lord de Beaujeu into the hands of the count d'Armagnac, and who, on the capture of Lectoure, had been made prisoner, was brought to Poitiers, where he was tried and condemned for this offence to be beheaded, and was then executed; after which, his body was put into a coffin, covered with a pall emblazoned with his arms, and carried by the four orders of mendicant friars in Poitiers for interment, when a handsome service was performed. In this month of April, the truce between the king and the duke of Burgundy was prolonged to the end of the ensuing year. FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 41: Nicourt. Q. Nicorps a village near Coutances.] [Footnote 42: Rambures,--a town in Picardy, near Abbeville.] [Footnote 43: Roussi,--Anthony of Luxembourg count of Roucy, son to the constable of St Pol.] [Footnote 44: Lectoure,--a city in Armagnac, the capital of Lomagne.] [Footnote 45: Cardinal of Arras. John Joffroy, then bishop of Alby.] [A.D. 1473.] CHAP. XVI. THE SIEGE OF PERPIGNAN.--THE DUKE OF ALENÇON DETAINED PRISONER IN THE LOUVRE.--THE DEATH OF THE DUKE OF CALABRIA.--THE EXECUTION OF JOHN HARDY FOR INTENDING TO POISON THE KING.--EDICTS FROM THE KING RESPECTING THE GENS D'ARMES AND THE COIN.--AN EMBASSY FROM THE KING OF ARRAGON.--OTHER EVENTS IN THIS YEAR. About the end of April, in the year 1473, the king of Arragon made an attack on the town of Perpignan, and gained it from the lord du Lau, who had the guard of it; but the castle remained unconquered,--and the garrison held it for the king of France a long time after the capture of the town. When Lectoure had been destroyed, the king ordered the army to Perpignan, in which were besieged the king of Arragon and his son. With the nobles and captains of this army was the cardinal of Alby who behaved himself most prudently and courageously. This siege lasted long, even until the month of June,--when the king, to hasten it, sent thither a reinforcement of four hundred lances from Amiens and the adjacent towns, together with a large train of artillery and cannoniers.