Chapter I: Preface: My Dear Lads

You may be told perhaps that there is no good to be obtained from tales of fighting and bloodshed--that there is no moral to be drawn from such histories. Believe it not. War has its lessons as well as Peace. You will learn from tales like this that determination and enthusiasm can accomplish marvels, that true courage is generally accompanied by magnanimity and gentleness, and that if not in itself the very highest of virtues, it is the parent of almost all the others, since but few of them can be practiced without it. The courage of our forefathers has created the greatest empire in the world around a small and in itself insignificant island; if this empire is ever lost, it will be by the cowardice of their descendants.

At no period of her history did England stand so high in the eyes of Europe as in the time whose events are recorded in this volume. A chivalrous king and an even more chivalrous prince had infected the whole people with their martial spirit, and the result was that their armies were for a time invincible, and the most astonishing successes were gained against numbers which would appear overwhelming. The victories of Cressy and Poitiers may be to some extent accounted for by superior generalship and discipline on the part of the conquerors; but this will not account for the great naval victory over the Spanish fleet off the coast of Sussex, a victory even more surprising and won against greater odds than was that gained in the same waters centuries later over the Spanish Armada. The historical facts of the story are all drawn from Froissart and other contemporary historians, as collated and compared by Mr. James in his carefully written history. They may therefore be relied upon as accurate in every important particular.

Yours sincerely,

G. A. HENTY.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER I. A Wayfarer 1

CHAPTER II. The Hut in the Marshes 18

CHAPTER III. A Thwarted Plot 36

CHAPTER IV. A Knight's Chain 54

CHAPTER V. The City Games 72

CHAPTER VI. The Melee 89

CHAPTER VII. The Young Esquire 107

CHAPTER VIII. Off to the Wars 126

CHAPTER IX. The Siege of Hennebon 145

CHAPTER X. A Place of Refuge 164

CHAPTER XI. A Stormy Interview 180

CHAPTER XII. Jacob van Artevelde 196

CHAPTER XIII. The White Ford 214

CHAPTER XIV. Cressy 232

CHAPTER XV. The Siege of a Fortalice 250

CHAPTER XVI. A Prisoner 267

CHAPTER XVII. The Capture of Calais 285

CHAPTER XVIII. The Black Death 303

CHAPTER XIX. By Land and Sea 319

CHAPTER XX. Poitiers 336

CHAPTER XXI. The Jacquerie 353

CHAPTER XXII. Victory and Death 372

ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND.