You have been informed how the forces that the king had entrenched along the River Seine abandoned their post, and retreated to Paris, the very hour we had designed to attack them. The truces never lasted above one day, or two at the most; at other times the war was pushed on with all possible vigour, the skirmishes continuing from morning to night; and though they often beat our scouts home to our guards, yet they never sallied out of Paris in any considerable body. I do not remember to have seen one day pass without some small action or other; and I believe the king would have been contented they should have been greater, but he was suspicious of many persons, though without any cause: he told me once, that he found the gate of the Bastille of St. Antoine, towards the fields, open one night, which made him entertain a great suspicion of Charles de Melun, whose father[135] was then governor of that place. I shall say no more than I have done of the said Charles; but certainly never prince had a better servant than he showed himself all that year. It was one day resolved in Paris that they would sally out and venture a battle with us (I believe it was only a design of the great officers, and that the king was not privy to it). The project they had concerted, was to attack us in three several places at once; in one with a considerable body of forces that were to sally out of Paris; the other by the bridge of Charenton (but that party could have done us no great mischief): and the third, by a brigade of 200 men-at-arms from the wood of Vincennes. About midnight we were informed of this design by a page, who called to us over the river, by directions from some friends of the princes who were in the town, whose names he told us, and immediately returned. Just at break of day, the Lord Poncet de Rivière appeared before the bridge of Charenton; and the Lord du Lau[136] on the other side, towards the wood of Vincennes, charged up as far as our artillery, and killed one of our cannoneers: the alarm was very great, and everybody concluded it was the same design of which the page had given us notice in the night. The Count of Charolois was immediately in arms, but not so soon as Duke John of Calabria, who, in all alarms, was always the first mounted, his horse barbed, and himself completely armed: he wore such a dress as the condottieri usually do in Italy, and indeed he had the air of a prince and a great general. Whenever he came forth upon any alarm, his first course was to ride up to the barriers of our camp, to keep our men from sallying out; and they obeyed his orders as readily as if the Count of Charolois had been there himself, and, to speak truth, he deserved it. In a moment our whole army was in arms, and drawn up within our waggons, all except 200 horse, who were abroad upon the guard: and, unless it were that day, I never knew any great likelihood of a battle, but then everybody expected it.