curfîons upon thofe of Male-maifon, Chateau Cam brefis, and other places on the frontiers. The Hainaulters did fo one day, and the French returned the compliment the next ; of courfe many mortal combats happened. The country of Cambrefis was in great tribulation, for one half of it was burnt or deftroyed ; the duke of Normandy was itili on the frontiers, and it was not known what his next in tentions were y nor had they any news of the earl of Hainault. True it is that he had been in England, where he was moil honourably entertained by the king and barons, and had made a ftrong alliance with the king. He had left England, and gone into Germany, to the emperor Lewis of Bavaria, which was the reafon of his long abfence. % On the other hand, the lord John of Hainault was in Brabant arid Flanders, and had remonftrated with the duke and Jacob von Artaveld, upon the defolation of Hainault, and entreated them, on the part of his countrymen, that they would give them aid and advice. They replied, that the abfence of the earl could not be much longer ; and the moment he returned, they would be ready equipped to follow him, wherever he ihould choofe to lead them*' CHAP. XLVIII. THE DUKE OF NORMANDY LAYS SIEGE TO THIN · I/EVEQUE. TOURING the time the duke of Normandy lay in Cambray, the bifhop and the inhabitants of that place infoimed him, that the Hainaulters had taken ; ' by