paired, as it was iit ruins. This is a good and commercial town, fituated upon a river called the Taj*. CHAP. CLXXII. . THE DUKE OF LANCASTER LAYS SIEGE TO RENNES. ^BOtJT the middle of May, in the year 1357, ' the duke of Lancafter raifed a large body of. men at arms, of Englilh and Bretons, for the affiftance of the countefs of Montfort and her young * ' The treaty, which had been in agitation fo many years, was at leogth concluded, at Berwick, 3d O&çber 1357. By it the king of Scots was releafed, after a captivity of eleven years. The Scottiih nation agreed to pay one hundred thoufand mark* flerling as the ranfom of their fovereign, by yearly payments of ten thoufand marks on the 24th June. ' Twenty young men of quality, and among them the eldeft fon of the Stewart, were to be given as hoftages : and for further fecurity, three of the following great lords were to place theni-felves in the hands of the'Englilh: the Stewart, the earls of March, Mar, Rois, Angus, and Sutherland, lord Douglas and Thomas Moray of Bothwell. It was provided, that a truce ihould continue between the two nations until complete payment of the ranfoin. * The king of Scots, the nobility and the boroughs, ratified this treaty the 5th of Oâober, and the biihops ratified it on the following day. * David, immediately after Iris reîéafe, furamoned a parliament, laid the treaty before the three eftates, obtained their approbation, and then ratified the treaty anew, at Scone, 6th November.'— Annals of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 244. Bb3 fon, 373