A great army under John of Gaunt penetrated into the heart of France.

But it found no foe to engage.

Charles had forbidden any fighting.
"If a storm rages over the land," said the king coolly, "it disperses of itself; and so will it be with the English." Winter in fact overtook the Duke of Lancaster in the mountains of Auvergne, and a mere fragment of his host reached Bordeaux.

The failure of this attack was the signal for a general defection, and ere the summer of 1374 had closed the two towns of Bordeaux and Bayonne were all that remained of the English possessions in Southern France.

Even these were only saved by the exhaustion of the conquerors.