THE SCENE: In the passage below, a group of Louis VI’s knights attempt a stealthy scouting mission in hostile territory… only to find out themselves hard pressed by a group of local villagers.
THE TEXT: Aware of all this but still aiming to cross into Normandy, the king made his way towards the border with only a small band of knights, for he hoped to do his planning in some secrecy. He cautiously sent ahead men disguised as travelers, but they wore chainmail beneath their cloaks and carried swords at their waists. They went down the main road to a village called Gasny, an old settlement that would give the French an open and easy approach to the Normans. The river Epte flowed around the middle of the village and provided safety for those inside, while no one on the outside of the village could cross the river upstream or downstream except at a distance. Suddenly the king’s men cast off their cloaks and unsheathed their swords, but the villagers, seeing what was coming, surged forward vehemently with their weapons. The royal force, however, drove them back with a powerful attack of its own; and then, unexpectedly, when his men were almost worn out, the king hurried across the dangerous slope of a hill and brought them timely aid. He seized the village’s churchyard and the church itself – which was fortified by a tower – but not without the loss of some men.
– The Deeds of Louis the Fat, Suger, 12th Century AD
