remarkable skill displayed in the choice of ground by the Black Prince. 8. Placing his men among hedges and rows of vines, he prevented them from suffering from the full force of the charges made by the French cavalry; and by directing the operations of the archers, who in their green coats formed a great part of every English army then, he produced confusion in the enemy's ranks, and at last scattered them in flight (1356). King John of France was made prisoner in this battle; and, when the Black Prince made a triumphal entry into London, some time later, he paid this royal captive a graceful compliment by mounting a little black pony and riding as a page after the cream-colored charger on which John paced solemnly along. 9. The last days of the Black Prince were days of sorrow and gloom. His expedition into Spain may be looked upon as the point at which his path of life turned downward to the grave. He went across the Pyrenees to aid the cause of a man called Peter the Cruel, from whom a step-brother had taken the crown of Castile. In the two battles of Najarra (nah-yah'rah) and Navarete (nah-vah-ra'ta), fought not far from the Ebro, the English were victorious, and their triumphs replaced Pedro upon the throne he had lost. 10. The ungrateful Spaniard then refused to pay his English soldiers, and Prince Edward was obliged to meet all the expenses of a campaign, which brought him nothing but empty glory. His only method of raising money then was to lay a hearth-tax on his French dominions, a proceeding which raised a cry of discontent from every cottage and every castle in the wide valley of the Garonne (gah-ron'). But worse than debt resulted to the Black Prince from this ill-fated expedition. He caught a sickness in Spain which ended in his death; and he never wore the English crown at all. [King Edward III. survived his illustrious son only one year, expiring in the sixty fifth year of his age, after a reign of more than fifty years (1377).] Taking of Calais by Edward III.—Hume. [After the battle of Crecy, Edward III. marched to Calais, which, after a siege of nearly twelve months, he succeeded in taking. The following extract, from Hume's "History of England," contains some interesting incidents connected with its surrender.] 1. THE town of Calais had been defended with remarkable vigilance, constancy, and bravery by the townsmen, during a siege of unusual length; but Philip (King of France,) informed of their distressed condition, determined at last to attempt their relief; and he approached the English with an immense army, which the writers of that age make amount to two hundred thousand men. But he found Edward so surrounded with morasses, and secured by intrenchments, that, without running on inevitable destruction, he concluded it impossible to make an attempt on the English camp. He had no other resource than to send his rival a vain challenge to meet him in the open field; which being refused, he was obliged to decamp with his army, and disperse them into their several provinces. 2. John of Vienne, Governor of Calais, now saw the necessity of surrendering his fortress, which was reduced to the last extremity by famine and the fatigue of the inhabitants. He appeared on the walls, and made a signal to the English sentinels that he desired a parley. Sir Walter Manny was sent to him by Edward. "Brave knight," cried the governor, "I have been intrusted by my sovereign with the command of this town; it is almost a year since you besieged me; and I have endeavored, as well as those under me, to do our duty. But you are acquainted with our present condition; we have no hopes of relief; we are perishing with hunger; I am willing therefore to surrender, and desire, as the sole condition, to insure the lives and liberties of these brave men, who have so long shared with me every danger and fatigue." 3. Manny replied that he was well acquainted with the intentions of the King of England; that that prince was incensed against the townsmen of Calais for their pertinacious resistance, and for the evils which they had made him and his subjects suffer; that he was determined to take exemplary vengeance on them, and would not receive the town on any condition which should confine him in the punishment of these offenders. 4. "Consider," replied Vienne, "that this is not the treatment to which brave men are entitled; if any English knight had been in my situation, your king would have expected the same conduct from him. The inhabitants of Calais have done for their sovereign what merits the esteem of every prince, much more of so gallant a prince as Edward. But I inform you, that, if we must perish, we shall not perish unavenged; and that we are not yet so reduced but we can sell our lives at a high price to the victors. It is the interest of both sides to prevent these desperate extremities; and I expect that you yourself, brave knight, will interpose your good offices with your prince in our behalf.” 5. Manny was struck with the justness of these sentiments, and represented to the king the danger of reprisals if he should give such treatment to the inhabitants of Calais. Edward was at last persuaded to mitigate the rigor of the conditions demanded he only insisted, that six of the most considerable citizens should be sent to him to be disposed of as he thought proper; that they should come to his camp carrying the keys of the city in their hands, bareheaded and barefooted, with ropes about their necks; and on these conditions he promised to spare the lives of all the remainder. 6. When this intelligence was conveyed to Calais, it struck the inhabitants with new consternation. To sacrifice six of their fellow-citizens to certain destruction for signalizing their valor in a common cause, appeared to them even more severe than that general punishment with which they were before threatened; and they found themselves incapable of coming to any resolution in so cruel and distressful a situation. At last one of the principal inhabitants, called Eustace de St. Pierre, whose name deserves to be recorded, stepped forth, and declared himself willing to encounter death for the safety of his friends and companions; another, animated by the example, made a like generous offer; a third and a fourth presented themselves to the same fate; and the whole number was soon completed. 7. These six heroic burgesses appeared before Edward in the guise of malefactors, laid at his feet the keys of their city, and were ordered to be led to execution. It is surprising that so generous a prince should ever have entertained such a barbarous purpose against such men; and still more that he should seriously persist in the resolution of executing it. But the entreaties of his queen saved his memory from that infamy; she threw herself on her knees before him, and with tears in her eyes, begged the lives of these citizens. Having obtained. her request, she carried them into her tent, ordered a repast to be set before them, and, after making them a present of money and clothes, dismissed them in safety. Insurrection under Wat Tyler.-Dickens. [Edward III. was succeeded by his grandson, the son of the Black Prince, who ascended the throne with the title of Richard II. (1377). The first part of this reign is noted for an insurrection of the lower orders of the people, the immediate occasion of which was the imposition of a tax on every person above fifteen years of age. The following extract from Dickens's "Child's History of England," gives the particulars of this event.] 1. THE common people 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 insurrection 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. Her mother, who was at home, declared that she was under the age of fourteen; upon that the collector (as other collectors had already done in different parts of England) behaved in a savage way, and brutally insulted Wat Tyler's daughter. The daughter screamed, the mother screamed. Wat the Tiler, who was at work not far off, ran to the spot, and did what any honest father under such provocation might have done-struck the collector dead at a blow. 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 called JACK STRAW; they took out of Maidstone 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. 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 station; for the king's mother, who had to pass through their camp at Blackheath, on her way to her young son, lying for safety in the Tower of London, had merely to kiss a few dirty-faced, rough-bearded men, who were noisily fond of royalty, and so got away in perfect safety. Next day the whole mass marched on to London Bridge. There was a drawbridge in the middle, which William Walworth, the Mayor, caused to be raised to prevent their coming into the city; but they soon terrified the citizens into lowering it again, and spread themselves, with great uproar, over the streets. 5. They broke open the prisons; they burned the papers in Lambeth Palace; they destroyed the Duke of Lancaster's palace, the Savoy, in the Strand, said to be the most beautiful and splendid in England; they set fire to the books and documents in the Temple; and made a great riot. Many of these outrages were committed in drunkenness; since those citizens who had well-filled cellars were only too glad to throw them open to save the rest of their property; but even the drunken rioters were very careful to steal nothing. They were so angry with one man, who was seen to take a silver cup at the Savoy |