Late in the evening the Earl of Warwick, who had pushed forward as far as Abbeville and St.Valery, returned with the news that the passages at those places were as strongly guarded as elsewhere, but he had learnt from a peasant that a ford existed somewhere below Abbeville, although the man was himself ignorant of its position.
Edward at once called the prisoners belonging to that part of the country before him, and promised to any one who would tell him where the ford lay his freedom and that of twenty of his companions.

A peasant called Gobin Agase stepped forward and offered to show the ford, where at low tide twelve men could cross abreast.

It was, he said, called "La Blanche Tache".
Edward left Oisemont at midnight and reached the ford at daylight.

The river, however, was full and the army had to wait impatiently for low tide.

When they arrived there no enemy was to be seen on the opposite bank, but before the water fell sufficiently for a passage to be attempted, Sir Godemar du Fay with 12,000 men, sent by King Phillip, who was aware of the existence of the ford, arrived on the opposite side.
The enterprise was a difficult one indeed, for the water, even at low tide, is deep.