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to yield, and even to accept the condition, which has been presented on thousands of canvases, that six of the principal burgesses should come to Edward's camp carrying the keys of the city in their hands, bareheaded and barefooted, and with ropes about their necks.

Never probably in the history of England has there been two years more laden with victories in the field than 1346 and 1347. A triumphantly successful campaign in France, ending in the victory of Crecy and the capture of Calais; repeated victories over the Scots, and the leading away into captivity of David, King of Scotland, and Charles de Blois, besides a host of other notable prisoners, represent achievements which can rarely have been equalled in so short a space of time. But, as though to check the national pride, a dire misfortune was destined to overtake the country.

The Plague, which had its origin 66 amongst the East Indians and Tartarians," advanced over Europe in 1347 and 1348, and finally reached our shores in the spring of the last-named year. Though it travelled slowly through the country, it counted its victims by thousands, and according to the best authorities from one-third to one-half of the population of the country perished. Three Archbishops of Canterbury died plaguestricken in one year, and under the site of the present Charterhouse 50,000 victims of the pestilence were buried.

But neither this awful visitation nor the campaign of 1347 put an end to the strife between the two nations, and though the war was carried on with varying success, the balance of advantage was beyond question on the side of the

English. The strong castle of Guignes, among other fortresses, passed to the English crown in a way which reads like a chapter of a romance. An English prisoner who was employed in repairing the walls, "cujusdam lotricis fedis amplexibus associatus," learned from this Rahab that "from the bottome of the (city) ditch, there was a wall made of two foote broade, stretching from the rampiers to the brimme of the ditch within forth, so that, being covered with water, it could not be seen, but not so drowned but that a man going aloft thereon should not be wet past the knees, it being made for the use of fishers." Under cover of night the soldier passed in safety along this wall to the English camp, and returning with thirty men, led them into the town by the same passage, and wan all the fortresses of the castle before the townspeople knew "what had happened to them within the castle."

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A truce soon followed, during which an incident occurred which is strangely illustrative of the state of society at the time, and of the prestige which English valour had established over the minds of Frenchmen. While the Duke of Lancaster was taking part in an expedition against "the heathens "in Prussia, Otto, Duke of Brunswick, laid a plot to take him prisoner. When accused of this unknightly scheme, Otto denied it vehemently, and charged the Duke of Lancaster with lying. A challenge followed, when it was agreed that the duel should be fought out in the presence of the King of France. a fixed day the lists were formed at Paris, and the king and his nobles being present, the Duke of Lancaster appeared ready and willing to put the matter to the hazard.

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Both combatants were bound over to keep the peace, an unnecessary precaution so far as one was concerned, and the Duke of Lancaster, in recognition of his knightly bearing, was loaded with favours by the king. On taking his leave, Philip would have presented him with a casket of jewels, but "nil horum voluit nisi solam spinam quæ fuerat de corona Jesu Christi," and with this he departed. The short-lived truce which made this incident possible was, however, no sooner over, than "grim-visaged" war again showed its front in the fairest fields of France. King Edward once again led an army into the northern provinces, while the Black Prince was commissioned to reassert his father's supremacy over the Duchy of Guienne. It is difficult to read the account of this expedition without a feeling of horror. No one who has visited the valley of the Garonne, and the districts watered by its affluents, can fail to have been struck by the beauty of the scenery, the fertility of the soil, the happy industry of the people, and the quiet prosperity of the towns. In this favoured region Nature has been lavish with her gifts. The choicest fruits and flowers grow in almost tropical profusion, and corn yields abundant harvests to the farmers. Such was also the state of the Duchy when the Black Prince

landed at Bordeaux, and advanced inland to fulfil his commission. In those days armies marched without commissariat and without

hospitals. War was made to support war with a vengeance, and the Black Prince probably did only what every commander similarly placed would have done, when he burnt and destroyed cities, and laid waste whole districts which had formerly blossomed as the rose. Mr Thompson has for the first time successfully traced the line of march pursued on this inroad, and the frequency of such entries as "three neighbouring towns burnt," "capture and destruction of Galiax," "Plaisance burnt," &c., makes us content ourselves with the statement that the army marched from Bordeaux to Narbonne on the Gulf of Lions and back. The spoils accumulated were enormous, full licence having been given to the soldiers to take what they could keep.

Flushed with victory, the prince determined to march across France to join the king, and for a time there appeared to be every probability of his being able to carry out his intention. Without encountering any serious opposition, he advanced as far as the Loire, where he learnt that King John of France was marching to oppose him with a force of 60,000 men. To have encountered such an army with his small following of 7000 men, in the midst of an enemy's country, would have been an act of madness, and he therefore purposed to retreat with all speed to Guienne. But the rapidity of John's movements defeated the plan. For three days the two armies marched southwards converging lines, and came within striking distance in the neighbourhood of Poitiers.

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A battle having just become inevitable, the Black Prince drew up his army in array on the 19th September 1356. "The vaward of the armie he committed to the Earles of Warwicke and Oxford, the middle ward was guided by the Prince, and the rereward was led by the Earles of Salisburie and Suffolke." A long hedge and ditch which skirted the plateau where the English were posted, and followed the slope of the hill into the valley below, separated the French from the 1st and 3d divisions of the English army, while the prince's division was posted on a hill on the right front. The 1st division was drawn up on the slope of the hill and on the left, the 3d division was posted within reach of a gap in the upper part of the hedge. Baker's mention of this gap is important, and explains the commonly accepted error that the battle was a mere struggle in a deep lane.

The French attack opened with the advance of the cavalry, a division of which made for the gap, with the intention of taking Warwick in rear. There, however, it was confronted by Salisbury's troops, and was compelled to retreat before the arrows of the English bowmen. On the repulse of the cavalry, the Dauphin's division was ordered to attack. "Apparatus hujus aciei," says Baker, "fuit terribilior atque veemencior quam facies belli primitus repressi." With shouts of "St Denis for us!" they charged against the English ranks with a weight and fierceness which for a moment shook the English line. Hand to hand and steel to steel the men on both sides fought desperately. At length the Frenchmen began to waver, and finally turned and ran, pursued by the English, who "slue

them like as the wolves chase and kill sheep.” kill sheep." According to the French historians, this rout was "non fugam sed pulchram retraccionem " !!

The discomfiture of the Dauphin's division seems to have exercised so terrifying an influence on the division commanded by the Duke of Orleans that it was never engaged, and marched off the field without striking a blow. But it was otherwise with the troops commanded by the king. Having bound himself by an oath that he would not leave the field unless he were taken or slain, he led his men against the English, who, having already sustained an unequal contest for hours, were faint and weary with the strife. Manfully, however, they met the onslaught of the enemy, and though the advantage of both numbers and condition was in favour of the French, the sturdy valour of the English prevailed.

"Then bestirreth himself the worthy Prince of Wales, cutting and hewing the Frenchmen with a sharpe sword," and "at length thrusteth thorow the throngs of them that guarded the French king. Then should you see an antient beginne to nod and stumble, the bearers of them

to fall downe: the blood of slaves and princes ran mingled together into the waters which were nigh. In like manner the bore of Cornewall rageth, who seeketh to have none other way to the French king's standard than by blood onely: but, when they were come there, they met with a company of stoute men to withstand them. The Englishmen fight, the Frenchmen also lay on, but at length, Fortune making haste to turne her wheele, the prince preaseth forward on his enemies, and, like a fierce lion beating downe the proud, he came to the yeelding up of the French king."

With the king was taken his

son, and a host also of knights and nobles. Of the rest, 2800 men were slain, and the remainder were scattered in flight. Thus was inflicted on the French a defeat to which, for completeness and for the consequences arising from it, Waterloo and Sedan are alone comparable. Loaded with honours, the Black Prince, with "those few, those happy few" who had shared in his triumph, returned to Bordeaux, from which port he sailed with his captives to England.

Here Baker's Chronicle comes to an end, and there could not be found a more fitting closing scene to a historical drama than the account of so signal a victory. But the interest attaching to the Chronicle is not confined to its record of political crises and strik

ing incidents. It takes the reader behind the scenes. It initiates him into the secret springs of Court intrigues and councils. It discovers to him the true motives of political adventurers and of meddling ecclesiastics; and it echoes in his ears the peans of triumph from many a hard-fought field.

Succeeding historians have drawn largely on its pages for the principal events of the period; but they have too often passed unheeded by those details and light touches which are essential to the right understanding of history. These are carefully illustrated by Mr Thompson, whose notes, which are full and accurate, supply an effective atmosphere and background to the picture which Baker painted with such vividness and force five hundred years ago.

AN INDIAN RING.

BUNKUMPORE is a big and important Indian station, with its English troops and its native troops, its general and his staff, its Resident, its magistrates, and other varieties of officialdom; its Maharajah, with his Court and administration; and last, not least in interest to the English society, its race-course and training-stables. The annual race week is one of its oldest and most important institutions. Many horses then come from the other Presidencies, bringing owners, trainers, and jockeys in their suite. The talk of the male portion of the community at that season becomes very distinctly based on the 'Indian Turf Guide'; while the whole attention of the softer sex is devoted to devising the variety of toilet necessary to an effective appearance in the grand stand.

It is curious how at this particular time the consciences of all the great Panjandrums, who live in the hills, prick them into visiting and inspecting such portions of their departments as are located in Bunkumpore. The Panjandrums are kind and considerate, however, and the real business of the week is never interfered with. An off day or an unoccupied hour or two in the morning is found sufficient for the official business, and the Panjandrums see more of their subordinates at the race-course and the allied dinners and balls than anywhere else.

It was an off day nearly at the end of this festive period-in fact we had only one more day's racing before us-when a very distinguished officer having expressed a wish to see the gallant Hussars on parade, our colonel had

VOL. CXLIX.-NO. DCCCCVII.

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treated us for his benefit to a bucketing field-day, in the course of which we had executed many manœuvres, more or less satisfactorily, on the dusty and broken plain devoted to the instruction of the troops quartered in the station.

My part in the morning's proceedings had not incurred any of our commanding officer's choicest flowers of speech, and-except that I had been told in a grim undertone, when the distinguished visitor was out of earshot, that my method of commanding a squadron was like that of an old woman driving an apple-cart, a form of address so comparatively mild that I took it as a compliment rather than otherwise-I had escaped the somewhat severe criticism which not unfrequently followed my most strenuous efforts to show myself an incipient cavalry general.

I had breakfasted copiously and comfortably with my cheery brother officers at the mess, and was subsequently occupying a long chair in the cool verandah of my bungalow, clad in the lightest of shirts and pyjamas, smoking the Trichy of digestion and repose, and preparing to read leisurely the pile of newspapers which had just arrived from England.

The sun was as yet unable to dart its rays through the thick foliage and gorgeously coloured blooms of the creepers which spread over the roof of the bungalow, and twined in many knotted tendrils round the pillars of the verandah. The stillness of the coming heat was gradually settling over the compound, where a couple of lean bullocks, released from their watercart labours, were lazily chewing the cud, and ineffectually flapping

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