tide, he crossed the mouth of the Somme, and found himself within his own maternal inheritance; and for that special reason he encamped near the forest of Crecy, fifteen miles north-east of Abbeville. "I am," he said, on the right heritage of madam, my mother, which was given her in dowry; I will defend it against my 'adversary, Philip of Valois." 5. It was on Saturday, the 28th of August 1346, and it was at four in the afternoon, that the battle commenced. It always helps us better to imagine any remarkable event, when we know at what time of the day or 1346 night it took place; and on this occasion it is of A.D. great importance, because it helps us at once to answer the question we asked, How was the battle won? 6. The French army had advanced from Abbeville, after a hard day's march to overtake the retiring enemy. All along the road, and flooding the hedgeless plains which bordered the road, the army, swelled by the surrounding peasantry, rolled along, crying, "Kill! kill!" drawing their swords, and thinking they were sure of their prey. What the French King chiefly relied on (besides his great numbers) was the troop of fifteen thousand crossbowmen from Genoa. These were made to stand in front; when, just as the engagement was about to take place, one of those extraordinary incidents occurred which often turn the fate of battles, as they do of human life in general. 7. A tremendous storm gathered from the west, and broke in thunder, and rain, and hail on the field of battle; the sky was darkened, and the horror was increased by the hoarse cries of crows and ravens, which fluttered before the storm, and struck terror into the hearts of the Italian bowmen, who were unaccustomed to these northern tempests. And when at last the sky had cleared, and they prepared their crossbows to shoot, the strings had been so wet by the rain that the men could not draw them. 8. By this time, the evening sun streamed out in full 'splendour over the black clouds of the western sky-right in their faces; and at the same moment the English archers, who had kept their bows in cases during the storm, and so had their strings dry, let fly their arrows so fast and thick that those who were present could only compare it to snow or sleet. Through and through the heads, and necks, and hands of the Genoese bowmen the arrows pierced. Unable to stand it they turned and fled, and from that moment the 'panic and confusion were so great that the day was lost. 9. But though the storm, and the sun, and the archers had their part, we must not forget the Prince. He was, we must remember, only sixteen, and yet he commanded. the whole English army! It is said that the reason of this was, that the King of France had been so bent on destroying the English forces, that he had hoisted the sacred banner of France-the great scarlet flag, 'embroidered with golden lilies, called the Oriflamme3-as a sign that no quarter would be given; and that when King Edward saw this, and saw the hazard to which he should expose, not only the army, but the whole kingdom, if he were to fall in battle, he determined to leave it to his son. 10. On the top of a windmill, of which the solid tower is still to be seen on the ridge overhanging the field, the King, for whatever reason, remained bareheaded, whilst the young Prince, who had been knighted a month before, went forward with his companions in arms into the very thickest of the fray; and when his father saw that the victory was virtually gained, he forbore to interfere. "Let the child win his spurs," he said, in words which have since become a proverb, "and let the day be his." The Prince was in very great danger at one moment: he was wounded and thrown to the ground, and was only saved by Richard de Beaumont, who carried the great banner of Wales, throwing the banner over the boy as he lay on the ground, and standing upon it till he had driven back the 'assailants. 11. The assailants were driven back; and far through the long summer evening, and deep into the summer night, the battle raged. It was not till all was dark that the Prince and his companions halted from their pursuit; and then huge fires and torches were lit up, that the King might see where they were. 12. And then took place that touching 'interview between the father and the son; the King embracing the boy in front of the whole army, by the red light of the blazing fires, and saying, "Sweet son, God give you good perseverance: you are my true son; right royally have you acquitted yourself this day, and worthy are you of a crown.” And the young Prince, after the reverential manner of those times, "bowed to the ground, and gave all the honour to the King his father." The next day the King walked over the field of carnage with the Prince, and said, "What think you of a battle? is it an agreeable game?" A.D. 13. The general result of the battle was the deliverance of the English army from a most 'imminent danger, and subsequently the conquest of Calais, which the King immediately besieged and won, and which 1347 remained in the possession of the English from that day to the reign of Queen Mary. From that time the Prince became the darling of the English, and the terror of the French; and whether from this terror, or from the black armour which he wore on that day, and which contrasted with the fairness of his complexion, he was called by them "Le Prince Noir"—"The Black Prince," and from them the name has passed to us; so that all his other sounding titles, by which the old poems call him— "Prince of Wales, Duke of Aquitaine "—are lost in the one memorable name which he won for himself in his first fight, at Crecy. A. P. STANLEY: Historical Memorials of Canterbury. ad-ver-sa-ry, enemy. ing. ex-traor-di-na-ry, unusual. for-bore', declined; refrained. im-mi-nent, near; threatening. in-her-i-tance, possession. attack-in-ter-view, meeting. orna ma-ter-nal, from a mother. rav-aged, wasted; plundered. royal standard of France. It was a flag 4 Cal'ais, on the north-west coast of France. It was retaken by the Duke of Guise, January 4, 1558. The loss so affected Queen Mary, that it is said to have hastened her death. "When I am dead," she said, "Calais will be found written on my heart." 8. WAT TYLER'S RISING. [Edward the Black Prince died in 1376, a year before his father. Consequently his son became Prince of Wales and heir to the crown. When Edward III. died in 1377, this young prince, his grandson, succeeded him, with the title of Richard II.] 1. The common people1 of England had long been suffering under great oppression. They were still the mere slaves of the lords of the land on which they lived, and were on most occasions harshly and unjustly treated. But they had begun by this time to think very seriously of not bearing quite so much; and, probably, were emboldened by the French insurrection2 which had occurred a short time before. 2. The people of Essex rose against the poll-tax, and being severely handled by the government officers, killed some of them. At this very time one of the collectors, going his rounds from house to house at Dartford in Kent, came to the cottage of one Wat, a tiler by trade, and claimed the tax upon his daughter. A quarrel ensued, in the course of which Wat the Tiler struck the collector dead at a blow. A.D. 3. Instantly the people of that town uprose as one man. They made Wat Tyler their leader; they joined with the people of Essex, who were in arms under a priest 1381 called Jack Straw; they took out of Maidstone3 prison another priest named John Ball; and gathering in numbers as they went along, advanced, in a great confused army of poor men, to Blackheath. 4 It is said that they wanted to abolish all property, and to declare all men equal. I do not think this very likely; because they stopped the travellers on the roads, and made them swear to be true to King Richard and the people. 4. Nor were they at all disposed to injure those who had done them no harm, merely because they were of high |