第68章 ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE THIRD(3)

Now,their King relied strongly upon a great body of cross-bowmen from Genoa;and these he ordered to the front to begin the battle,on finding that he could not stop it.They shouted once,they shouted twice,they shouted three times,to alarm the English archers;but,the English would have heard them shout three thousand times and would have never moved.At last the cross-bowmen went forward a little,and began to discharge their bolts;

upon which,the English let fly such a hail of arrows,that the Genoese speedily made off-for their cross-bows,besides being heavy to carry,required to be wound up with a handle,and consequently took time to re-load;the English,on the other hand,could discharge their arrows almost as fast as the arrows could fly.

When the French King saw the Genoese turning,he cried out to his men to kill those scoundrels,who were doing harm instead of service.This increased the confusion.Meanwhile the English archers,continuing to shoot as fast as ever,shot down great numbers of the French soldiers and knights;whom certain sly Cornish-men and Welshmen,from the English army,creeping along the ground,despatched with great knives.

The Prince and his division were at this time so hard-pressed,that the Earl of Warwick sent a message to the King,who was overlooking the battle from a windmill,beseeching him to send more aid.

'Is my son killed?'said the King.

'No,sire,please God,'returned the messenger.

'Is he wounded?'said the King.

'No,sire.'

'Is he thrown to the ground?'said the King.

'No,sire,not so;but,he is very hard-pressed.'

'Then,'said the King,'go back to those who sent you,and tell them I shall send no aid;because I set my heart upon my son proving himself this day a brave knight,and because I am resolved,please God,that the honour of a great victory shall be his!'

These bold words,being reported to the Prince and his division,so raised their spirits,that they fought better than ever.The King of France charged gallantly with his men many times;but it was of no use.Night closing in,his horse was killed under him by an English arrow,and the knights and nobles who had clustered thick about him early in the day,were now completely scattered.At last,some of his few remaining followers led him off the field by force since he would not retire of himself,and they journeyed away to Amiens.The victorious English,lighting their watch-fires,made merry on the field,and the King,riding to meet his gallant son,took him in his arms,kissed him,and told him that he had acted nobly,and proved himself worthy of the day and of the crown.

While it was yet night,King Edward was hardly aware of the great victory he had gained;but,next day,it was discovered that eleven princes,twelve hundred knights,and thirty thousand common men lay dead upon the French side.Among these was the King of Bohemia,an old blind man;who,having been told that his son was wounded in the battle,and that no force could stand against the Black Prince,called to him two knights,put himself on horse-back between them,fastened the three bridles together,and dashed in among the English,where he was presently slain.He bore as his crest three white ostrich feathers,with the motto ICH DIEN,signifying in English 'I serve.'This crest and motto were taken by the Prince of Wales in remembrance of that famous day,and have been borne by the Prince of Wales ever since.

Five days after this great battle,the King laid siege to Calais.

This siege-ever afterwards memorable-lasted nearly a year.In order to starve the inhabitants out,King Edward built so many wooden houses for the lodgings of his troops,that it is said their quarters looked like a second Calais suddenly sprung around the first.Early in the siege,the governor of the town drove out what he called the useless mouths,to the number of seventeen hundred persons,men and women,young and old.King Edward allowed them to pass through his lines,and even fed them,and dismissed them with money;but,later in the siege,he was not so merciful-five hundred more,who were afterwards driven out,dying of starvation and misery.The garrison were so hard-pressed at last,that they sent a letter to King Philip,telling him that they had eaten all the horses,all the dogs,and all the rats and mice that could be found in the place;and,that if he did not relieve them,they must either surrender to the English,or eat one another.Philip made one effort to give them relief;but they were so hemmed in by the English power,that he could not succeed,and was fain to leave the place.Upon this they hoisted the English flag,and surrendered to King Edward.'Tell your general,'said he to the humble messengers who came out of the town,'that I require to have sent here,six of the most distinguished citizens,bare-legged,and in their shirts,with ropes about their necks;and let those six men bring with them the keys of the castle and the town.'

When the Governor of Calais related this to the people in the Market-place,there was great weeping and distress;in the midst of which,one worthy citizen,named Eustace de Saint Pierre,rose up and said,that if the six men required were not sacrificed,the whole population would be;therefore,he offered himself as the first.Encouraged by this bright example,five other worthy citizens rose up one after another,and offered themselves to save the rest.The Governor,who was too badly wounded to be able to walk,mounted a poor old horse that had not been eaten,and conducted these good men to the gate,while all the people cried and mourned.