fhall be matters of the river Seine/ The lord de Boucicaut anfwered,€ Sir, this I will moft willing perform #\ He then quitted Paris, taking with him a great number, of knights and fquires. Hé followed the road towards Normandy, through St. Germain en Laye, and gave thofe to underftand who accom-panied him that he was going to attack the caftle of Roulleboife f, which was detained by certain per-fons called free companions, who did every mifchief poffible. Roulleboife has a very good and ftrong caftle upon the river Seine, about a league diftant from Mante, and was at that time filled and garri-foned by thefe companies and their men at arms, who earned on the war for their own benefit, and attacked the friends of the kings of France and of Navarre without diftin&ion. They had a captain of the name of Wautaire Auftarde J, a native of Bruflels, whom they implicitly obeyed. He" paid them according to a certain fixed proportion of wages, and was an expert foldier of great courage. He and his people had pillaged the country all around ; fo that no one dared travel from Paris to Mante, nor from Mante to Rouen or Pontoife, for " * It does not appear from the memoirs of Bertrand du Guefclin, re-publifhed in the third and fourth volumes of les Mémoires Historiques, that the maréchal de Bc^icicaut had any thing to do with the taking of Mante, &c. as his name never once occurs. Nor are the chronicles agreed as to the exaft date when this happened.—See Note 19. Mem. Hift. f Roulleboife,—a village in Normandy, on the Seine. I Wautaire Auftarde. Barnes calls him Vantair.Auftarti -feir