There they were, a line of three hundred carts and wagons full of arms and victuals conducted by English soldiers and merchants and peasants from Normandy, Picardy, and Paris, fifteen hundred men at the most, all tranquil and unsuspecting. There naturally occurred to the Gascons the idea of falling upon these people and making short work with them at the moment when they least expected it.[551] In great haste they sent to the Count of Clermont for permission to attack. As handsome as Absalom and Paris of Troy, full of words and eaten up of vanity, the Count of Clermont, who was but a lad and none of the wisest, had that very day received his spurs and was at his first engagement.[552] He foolishly sent word to the Gascons not to attack before his arrival. The Gascons obeyed greatly disappointed; they saw what was being lost by waiting. And at length, perceiving that they have walked into the lion's mouth, the English leaders, Sir John Fastolf, Sir Richard Gethyn, Bailie of Evreux, Sir Simon Morhier, Provost of Paris, place themselves in good battle array. With their wagons they make a long narrow enclosure in the plain. There they entrench their horsemen, posting the archers in front, behind stakes planted in the ground with their points inclined towards the enemy.[553] Seeing these preparations, the Constable of Scotland loses patience and leads his four hundred horsemen in a rush upon the stakes, where the horses' legs are broken.[554] The English, discovering that it is only a small company they have to deal with, bring out their cavalry and charge with such force that they overthrow the French and slay three hundred. Meanwhile the men of Auvergne had reached Rouvray and were scouring the village, draining the cellars. The Bastard left them and came to the help of the Scots with four hundred fighting men. But he was wounded in the foot, and in great danger of being taken.[555] [Footnote 551: _Journal du siege_, pp. 38, 39. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 267, 268. _Mistere du siege_, line 8867. Dom Plancher, _Histoire de Bourgogne_, vol. iv, p. 127.] [Footnote 552: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 312. _Journal du siege_, p. 43. Chastellain, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove, vol. ii, p. 164.] [Footnote 553: Monstrelet, vol. iv, p. 311. _Journal du siege_, p. 39. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 232. _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 267, 268. Perceval de Cagny, pp. 137, 139.] [Footnote 554: _Journal du siege_, pp. 40, 41.] [Footnote 555: _Ibid._, p. 43. _Journal d'un bourgeois de Paris_, p. 232.]