country, meeting with but little opposition until he arrived so near to Paris as to burn St. Cloud.5 Meantime, Philip was engaged in collecting an army with which he might hope to prevent the further advance of the invaders; and presently the English found themselves in a most perilous position, being hemmed in by the sea, the Somme, and a French host more than three times their number. 6 In this difficulty a peasant showed them a part of the river that was fordable at low water. Then the English king held on his way to Cressy's famous field, where on Saturday, the 26th of August, 1346, he carefully arranged his little army in three divisions, and having placed the main body under the command of the boy-prince, he took up his station with the reserve on a hill marked by a windmill. The summer day was declining, when, as a storm of thunder and rain cleared off, the advanced guard of the French, consisting of Genoese with their cross-bows, made the first attack. But the English stood like a rock, and let fly the arrows from their long bows in a deadly shower, which the Genoese could not withstand. Fiercer and thicker grew the fight around the young prince, but his father would render him no assistance, wishing the honour of the day to be all his son's; and before many hours had passed, the gallant French army was a disordered, flying crowd. The loss on the side of the French was enormous. Twelve hundred knights, fifteen hundred gentlemen, four four thousand men-at-arms, and thirty thousand infantry, are said to have perished on the field or in the pursuit, along with the Duke of Lorraine, the Count d'Alençon, and the King of Bohemia. The crest of the latter, three ostrich feathers, and his motto, Ich dien, "I serve," were adopted by the Prince of Wales, and are still the arms of his successors. On that field, where the pride of France lay low, when the red glare of the torches lighted up the darkness of the night, the victorious prince bent humbly before King Edward, who kissed and blessed him, and called him his "good son," and "worthy to keep a realm." A few days after this victory, Edward III. encamped before Calais, which heroically endured a siege of eleven months, when the famine-stricken city was forced to surrender. We all know the pathetic story of the six noble citizens who offered themselves to appease the wrath of Edward, who had declared that only by giving up that number should the remainder be spared; and how by the intercession of Queen Philippa, they were saved and sent back in honour. 1 Da'-vid, son of the great Bruce. 2 The three sons of Philip IV. having reigned and died without heirs, Edward claimed the crown in right of his mother; but the Salic law, which enacted that no woman could inherit the throne, stood in his way, and Philip of Valois, nephew of Philip IV., was elected. 3 From Edward III. to Henry VI. 8 noted for its palace, park, and gardens. 6 Cres'-sy, a village in the province of Ponthieu. Cressy was the first battle where guns and gunpowder had been used, but they had been used before in sieges. 7 The Genoese archers were hired by France to match the English bowmen, 8 This heroic queen had recently defeated the Scotch at Neville's Cross. EDWARD THE THIRD: POITIERS. IN 1350 Philip died, and was succeeded by his son John. The terms of peace proposed by Edward being rejected, the war went on; and in 1356 we find the Black Prince in the heart of France, destroying the cornfields and the vineyards. Then he heard that King John with a mighty force was approaching, and when the two armies met near Poitiers the destruction of the English seemed inevitable, they were so few when compared with the enemy. Two great battles had already been fought in that neighbourhood;1 and now the English were about to gain their most famous victory over the French on the same spot. The battle was commenced by a grand column of French cavalry, who, to reach the English position, had to ride up a narrow lane. Here they were received by such a tempest of arrows from behind the hedges, that their horses were terrified, and fell back in confusion on the troops behind. But although this first attack failed, the combat was long and obstinate. At last, however, English bowmen decided the conflict, and all that great host was scattered like chaff before the wind. King John, with his son, Prince Philip, and some of his most illustrious subjects, were taken prisoners, the number so far exceeding that of the victors, that, in order to dispose of them, many were admitted to instant ransom. The French king himself was received most courteously by the Black |