12 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
the month of October, 1423. They drew on with a formidable artillery and 
an army of fifteen thousand men under the command of Count de Lescale. 
Their siege works ( bastilles ) surrounded the place on the land side, and they 
had numerous small vessels of war on the sea side. At the tidings of danger 
menacing this important point, the valiant soldiers of the counties of 
Avranches, Tire, Coutances, Valognes and Caen hurried to the defence. 
Louis d'Estouteville was made Governor. The names of these gallant 
gentlemen have been preserved to the number of 120, and fill four pages of 
the good Abbe's narrative : those who belonged to the diocese d'Avranches 
being honored with especial notice— 
The knights are dead, their swords are rust, 
Their souls are with the saints we trust 
and we will not repeat the roll. The first assault of the English preceded 
by a fierce cannonade was nevertheless a failure; they were beaten off much 
discouraged, and beheld in superstitious fancy the arm of the Archangel 
Michael fighting in defence of his servants, the monks. The English 
commander, Lescale, thought he would try his fortune next in a naval attack, 
and covered the bay with his shipping. It is related that a hermit of the 
neighbouring Mont Tombelaine 1 2 gave him fair warning that as often as the 
hostile fleet menaced the Mont, so often could he behold the Archangel 
stirring up storms and tempests to engulf his ships. The English general 
paid not the slightest attention to these hints; but scarcely had his vessels 
taken their places round the Mont when a furious tempest scattered them. 
Next day the shore was strewed with wreck, intermingled frith the bodies of 
those who had perished. 
Profiting by the eight days of neap tide, during which the Mont is 
approachable at all hours, 3 the English recommenced their attack by land. 
Their batteries were ready by sunrise: two of their pieces were of a pro¬ 
digious size, and threw stone balls of more than a foot in diameter. The walls 
of the lower part of the town were shattered, and the English precipitated 
themselves in assault with a greater resolution than they had ever before 
shewn since the siege began; but the defence was no less vigorous than the 
attack. The ladders were capsized, the assailants were pitched into the 
ditch, they returned to the assault, placed new ladders, and managed to gain 
the rampart. The carnage was frightful. The defenders, more particularly 
the Sieur de Cantilly, Thomas de Brayeuse and Guillaume Carbonel fought 
with desperation. However, they were driven into the castle. Then the 
monks trembling for their liberty united with their defenders, and took part 
in the fray. The English seemed to multiply, and the Abbey was on the 
point of falling into their hands, when the bravest of the knights Jean 
Guiton, Thomas de la Paluelle, Bobert du Homme, Guillaume de Yerdun, 
the Chevalier de Breuilly, forming themselves into a little band broke into 
the melee, forced themselves through the combatants, broke the English 
ranks and reached the pennons, which they threw under foot. 
1 Turnla JBteli, a twin islet, about two miles distant, on which as on Mont St Michel, were 
shrines to Baal in the pagan period. 
2 It is not surrounded with water at any time of the day during les eaux movies. 
