St. George for England: A Tale of Cressy and Poitiers

by G. A. Henty

  CHAPTER XIX.

  BY LAND AND SEA.

  Walter was raised from the ground, water was fetched from the cottage,and the blood washed from his head by Ralph, aided by two of the women.It had at once been seen that he was still living, and Ralph onexamining the wound joyfully declared that no great harm was done.

  "Had Sir Walter been strong and well," he said, "such a clip as thiswould not have knocked him from his feet, but he would have answered itwith a blow such as I have often seen him give in battle; but he was butbarely recovering and was as weak as a girl. He is unconscious from lossof blood and weakness. I warrant me that when he opens his eyes andhears that the Lady Edith had risen from her bed and came to send me tohis rescue, joy will soon bring the blood into his cheeks again. Do oneof you run to the hut and see if they have any cordial waters; since theplague has been raging there are few houses but have laid in a provisionin case the disease should seize them."

  The man soon returned with a bottle of cordial water compounded ofrosemary, lavender, and other herbs. By this time Walter had opened hiseyes. The cordial was poured down his throat, and he was presently ableto speak.

  "Be of good cheer, Sir Walter," Ralph said; "three of your rascallyassailants lie dead, and the other two have fled; but I have better newsstill for you. Lady Edith, who you told me lay unconscious and dying,has revived. The din of the conflict seems to have reached her ears andrecalled her to life, and the dear lady came to my room with the newsthat you were carried off, and then, while I was throwing on my clothes,roused the village to your assistance by ringing the alarm bell. Rarelyfrightened I was when she came in, for methought at first it was herspirit."

  The good news, as Ralph had predicted, effectually roused Walter, andrising to his feet he declared himself able to mount and ride back atonce. Ralph tried to persuade him to wait until they had formed a litterof boughs, but Walter would not allow it.

  "I would not tarry an instant," he said, "for Edith will be full ofanxiety until I return. Why, Ralph, do you think that I am a baby? Why,you yourself were but this morning unable to walk across the room, andhere you have been galloping and fighting on my behalf."

  "In faith," Ralph said, smiling, "until now I had forgotten that I hadbeen ill."

  "You have saved my life, Ralph, you and my friends here, whom I thankwith all my heart for what they have done. I will speak more to themanother time, now I must ride home with all speed."

  LADY EDITH'S LAST EFFORT.--Page 321.]

  Walter now mounted; Ralph took his place on one side of him, and one ofhis tenants on the other, lest he should be seized with faintness; thenat a hand-gallop they started back for the castle.

  Several women of the village had, when they left, hurried up to thecastle. They found Edith lying insensible by the rope of the alarm-bell,having fainted when she had accomplished her object. They presentlybrought her round; as she was now suffering only from extreme weakness,she was laid on a couch, and cordials and some soup were given to her.One of the women took her place at the highest window to watch for thereturn of any belonging to the expedition.

  Edith felt hopeful as to the result, for she thought that theirassailants would not have troubled to carry away the body of Walter hadnot life remained in it, and she was sure that Ralph would press them sohotly that sooner or later the abductors would be overtaken.

  An hour and a half passed, and then the woman from above ran down withthe news that she could see three horsemen galloping together toward thecastle, with a number of others following in confused order behind.

  "Then they have found my lord," Edith exclaimed joyfully, "for Ralphwould assuredly not return so quickly had they not done so. 'Tis a goodsign that they are galloping, for had they been bearers of ill news theywould have returned more slowly; look out again and see if they arebearing one among them."

  The woman, with some of her companions, hastened away, and in two orthree minutes ran down with the news that Sir Walter himself was one ofthe three leading horsemen. In a few minutes Edith was clasped in herhusband's arms, and their joy, restored as they were from the dead toeach other, was indeed almost beyond words.

  The plague now abated fast in Westerham, only two or three more personsbeing attacked by it.

  As soon as Edith was sufficiently recovered to travel Walter proceededwith her to London and there laid before the king and prince a complaintagainst Sir James Carnegie for his attempt upon their lives. Even in thetrance in which she lay Edith had recognized the voice which had oncebeen so familiar to her. Walter, too, was able to testify against him,for the rough jolting on horseback had for awhile restored hisconsciousness, and he had heard words spoken, before relapsing intoinsensibility from the continued bleeding of his wound, which enabledhim to swear to Sir James Carnegie as one of his abductors.

  The king instantly ordered the arrest of the knight, but he could not befound; unavailing search was made in every direction, and as nothingcould be heard of him it was concluded that he had left the kingdom. Hewas proclaimed publicly a false and villainous knight, his estates wereconfiscated to the crown, and he himself was outlawed. Then Walter andhis wife returned home and did their best to assist their tenants instruggling through the difficulties entailed through the plague.

  So terrible had been the mortality that throughout England there was alack of hands for field work, crops rotted in the ground because therewere none to harvest them, and men able to work demanded twenty timesthe wages which had before been paid. So great was the trouble from thissource that an ordinance was passed by parliament enacting that severepunishment should be dealt upon all who demanded wages above thestandard price, and even more severe penalties inflicted upon those whoshould consent to pay higher wages. It was, however, many years beforeEngland recovered from the terrible blow which had been dealt her fromthe pestilence.

  While Europe had been ravaged by pestilence the adherents of France andEngland had continued their struggle in Brittany in spite of the termsof the truce, and this time King Edward was the first open aggressor,granting money and assistance to the free companies, who pillaged andplundered in the name of England. The truce expired at the end of 1348,but was continued for short periods. It was, however, evident that bothparties were determined ere long to recommence hostilities. The Frenchcollected large forces in Artois and Picardy, and Edward himselfproceeded to Sandwich to organize there another army for the invasion ofFrance.

  Philip determined to strike the first blow, and, before the conclusionof the truce, to regain possession of Calais. This town was commanded bya Lombard officer named Almeric of Pavia. Free communication existed, inconsequence of the truce, between Calais and the surrounding country,and Jeffrey de Charny, the Governor of St. Omer, and one of thecommissioners especially appointed to maintain the truce, openedcommunications with the Lombard captain. Deeming that like mostmercenaries he would be willing to change sides should his interest todo so be made clear, he offered him a large sum of money to deliver thecastle to the French.

  The Lombard at once agreed to the project. Jeffrey de Charny arranged tobe within a certain distance of the town on the night of the 1st ofJanuary, bringing with him sufficient forces to master all opposition ifthe way was once opened to the interior of the town. It was furtheragreed that the money was to be paid over by a small party of French whowere to be sent forward for the purpose of examining the castle, inorder to insure the main body against treachery. As a hostage for thesecurity of the detachment, the son of the governor was to remain in thehands of the French without, until the safe return of the scoutingparty.

  Several weeks elapsed between the conclusion of the agreement and thedate fixed for its execution, and in the mean time the Lombard, eitherfrom remorse or from a fear of the consequences which might arise from adetection of the plot before its execution, or from the subsequentvengeance of the English king, disclosed the whole transaction toEdward.

  The king bade him continue to carry out his arrangements with De Charny,leaving
it to him to counteract the plot. Had he issued orders for therapid assembly of the army the French would have taken alarm. Hetherefore sent private messengers to a number of knights and gentlemenof Kent and Sussex to meet him with their retainers at Dover on the 31stof December.

  Walter was one of those summoned, and although much surprised at thesecrecy with which he was charged, and of such a call being made whilethe truce with France still existed, he repaired to Dover on the daynamed, accompanied by Ralph and by twenty men, who were all who remainedcapable of bearing arms on the estate.

  He found the king himself with the Black Prince at Dover, where they hadarrived that day. Sir Walter Manny was in command of the force, whichconsisted in all of three hundred men-at-arms and six hundred archers. Anumber of small boats had been collected, and at mid-day on the 1st ofJanuary the little expedition started, and arrived at Calais afternightfall.

  In the chivalrous spirit of the times the king determined that SirWalter Manny should continue in command of the enterprise; he and theBlack Prince, disguised as simple knights, fighting under his banner.

  In the mean time a considerable force had been collected at St. Omer,where a large number of knights and gentlemen obeyed the summons ofJeffrey de Charny. On the night appointed they marched for Calais, innumber five hundred lances and a corresponding number of footmen. Theyreached the river and bridge of Nieullay a little after midnight, andmessengers were sent on to the governor, who was prepared to receivethem. On their report De Charny advanced still nearer to the town,leaving the bridge and passages to the river guarded by a large body ofcross-bowmen under the command of the Lord de Fiennes and a number ofother knights. At a little distance from the castle he was met byAlmeric de Pavia, who yielded his son as a hostage according to hispromise, calculating, as was the case, that he would be recaptured bythe English. Then having received the greater portion of the moneyagreed upon, he led a party of the French over the castle to satisfythem of his sincerity. Upon receiving their report that all was quiet DeCharny detached twelve knights and a hundred men-at-arms to takepossession of the castle, while he himself waited at one of the gates ofthe town with the principal portion of his force.

  No sooner had the French entered the castle than the drawbridge wasraised. The English soldiers poured out from their places ofconcealment, and the party which had entered the castle were forced tolay down their arms. In the mean time the Black Prince issued with asmall body of troops from a gate near the sea, while De Manny, with theking under his banner, marched by the sally-port which led into thefields. A considerable detachment of the division was dispatched todislodge the enemy at the bridge of Nieullay, and the rest, joining theparty of the Black Prince, advanced rapidly upon the force of Jeffrey deCharny, which, in point of numbers, was double their own strength.

  Although taken in turn by surprise, the French prepared steadily for theattack. De Charny ordered them all to dismount and to shorten theirlances to pikes five feet in length. The English also dismounted, andrushing forward on foot a furious contest commenced. The ranks of bothparties were soon broken in the darkness, and the combatants separatinginto groups, a number of separate battles raged around the differentbanners.

  For some hours the fight was continued with unabating obstinacy on bothsides. The king and the Black Prince fought with immense bravery, theirexample encouraging even those of their soldiers who were ignorant ofthe personality of the knights who were everywhere in front of thecombat. King Edward himself several times crossed swords with the famousEustace de Ribaumont, one of the most gallant knights in France. Atlength toward daybreak the king, with only thirty companions, foundhimself again opposed to De Ribaumont, with a greatly superior force,and the struggle was renewed between them.

  Twice the king was beaten down on one knee by the thundering blows ofthe French knight, twice he rose and renewed the attack, until DeCharny, seeing Sir Walter Manny's banner, beside which Edward fought,defended by so small a force, also bore down to the attack, and in thestruggle Edward was separated from his opponent.

  The combat now became desperate round the king, and Sir Guy Brian, whobore De Manny's standard, though one of the strongest and most gallantknights of the day, could scarce keep the banner erect. Still Edwardfought on, and in the excitement of the moment, forgetting his_incognito_, he accompanied each blow with his customarywar-cry--"Edward, St. George! Edward, St. George!" At that battle-cry,which told the French men-at-arms that the King of England was himselfopposed to them, they recoiled for a moment. The shout too reached theears of the Prince of Wales, who had been fighting with another group.Calling his knights around him he fell upon the rear of De Charny'sparty and quickly cleared a space around the king.

  The fight was now everywhere going against the French, and the Englishredoubling their efforts the victory was soon complete, and scarcely oneFrench knight left the ground alive and free. In the struggle Edwardagain encountered De Ribaumont, who, separated from him by the charge ofDe Charny, had not heard the king's war-cry. The conflict between themwas a short one. The French knight saw that almost all his companionswere dead or captured, his party completely defeated, and all prospectsof escape cut off. He therefore soon dropped the point of his sword andsurrendered to his unknown adversary. In the mean time the troops whichhad been dispatched to the bridge of Nieullay had defeated the Frenchforces left to guard the passage and clear the ground toward St. Omer.

  Early in the morning Edward entered Calais in triumph, taking with himthirty French nobles as prisoners, while two hundred more remained deadon the field. That evening a great banquet was held, at which the Frenchprisoners were present. The king presided at the banquet, and the Frenchnobles were waited upon by the Black Prince and his knights. After thefeast was concluded the king bestowed on De Ribaumont the chaplet ofpearls which he wore round his crown, hailing him as the most gallant ofthe knights who had that day fought, and granting him freedom to returnat once to his friends, presenting him with two horses, and a purse todefray his expenses to the nearest French town.

  De Charny was afterward ransomed, and after his return to Franceassembled a body of troops and attacked the castle which Edward hadbestowed upon Almeric of Pavia, and capturing the Lombard, carried himto St. Omer, and had him there publicly flayed alive as a punishment forhis treachery.

  Walter had as usual fought by the side of the Prince of Wales throughoutthe battle of Calais, and had much distinguished himself for his valor.Ralph was severely wounded in the fight, but was able a month later torejoin Walter in England.

  The battle of Calais and the chivalrous bearing of the king createdgreat enthusiasm and delight in England, and did much to rouse thepeople from the state of grief into which they had been cast by theravages of the plague. The king did his utmost to maintain the spiritwhich had been evoked, and the foundation of the order of the Garter,and the erection of a splendid chapel at Windsor, and its dedication,with great ceremony, to St. George, the patron saint of England, stillfurther raised the renown of the court of Edward throughout Europe asthe center of the chivalry of the age.

  Notwithstanding many treaties which had taken place, and the nearalliance which had been well-nigh carried out between the royal familiesof England and Spain, Spanish pirates had never ceased to carry on aseries of aggressions upon the English vessels trading in the Bay ofBiscay. Ships were every day taken, and the crews cruelly butchered incold blood. Edward's remonstrances proved vain, and when threats ofretaliation were held out by Edward, followed by preparations to carrythose threats into effect, Pedro the Cruel, who had now succeeded tothe throne of Spain, dispatched strong reenforcements to the fleet whichhad already swept the English Channel.

  The great Spanish fleet sailed north, and capturing on its way a numberof English merchantmen, put into Sluys, and prepared to sail back intriumph with the prizes and merchandise it had captured. Knowing,however, that Edward was preparing to oppose them, the Spaniards filledup their complement of men, strengthened themselves by all sorts of th
ewar machines then in use, and started on their return for Spain with oneof the most powerful armadas that had ever put to sea.

  Edward had collected on the coast of Sussex a fleet intended to opposethem, and had summoned all the military forces of the south of Englandto accompany him; and as soon as he heard that the Spaniards were aboutto put to sea he set out for Winchelsea, where the fleet was collected.

  The queen accompanied him to the sea-coast, and the Black Prince, now inhis twentieth year, was appointed to command one of the largest of theEnglish vessels.

  The fleet put to sea when they heard that the Spaniards had started, andthe hostile fleets were soon in sight of each other. The number offighting men on board the Spanish ships was ten times those of theEnglish, and their vessels were of vastly superior size and strength.They had, moreover, caused their ships to be fitted at Sluys with largewooden towers, which furnished a commanding position to theircross-bowmen. The wind was direct in their favor, and they could haveeasily avoided the contest, but, confiding in their enormously superiorforce, they sailed boldly forward to the attack.

  The king himself led the English line, and directing his vessel toward alarge Spanish ship, endeavored to run her down. The shock wastremendous, but the enemy's vessel was stronger as well as larger thanthat of the king; and as the two ships recoiled from each other it wasfound that the water was rushing into the English vessel, and that shewas rapidly sinking. The Spaniard passed on in the confusion, but theking ordered his ship to be instantly laid alongside another which wasfollowing her, and to be firmly lashed to her. Then with his knights hesprang on board the Spaniard, and after a short but desperate fight cutdown or drove the crew overboard. The royal standard was hoisted on theprize, the sinking English vessel was cast adrift, and the king sailedon to attack another adversary.

  The battle now raged on all sides. The English strove to grapple withand board the enemy, while the Spaniards poured upon them a shower ofbolts and quarrels from their cross-bows, hurled immense masses of stonefrom their military engines, and, as they drew alongside, cast into themheavy bars of iron, which pierced holes in the bottom of the ship.

  Walter was on board the ship commanded by the Black Prince. This hadbeen steered toward one of the largest and most important of the Spanishvessels. As they approached, the engines poured their missiles intothem. Several great holes were torn in the sides of the ship, which wasalready sinking as she came alongside her foe.

  "We must do our best, Sir Walter," the prince exclaimed, "for if we donot capture her speedily our ship will assuredly sink beneath our feet."

  The Spaniard stood far higher above the water than the English ship, andthe Black Prince and his knights in vain attempted to climb her sides,while the seamen strove with pumps and buckets to keep the vesselafloat. Every effort was in vain. The Spaniard's men-at-arms lined thebulwarks, and repulsed every effort made by the English to climb upthem, while those on the towers rained down showers of bolts and arrowsand masses of iron and stone. The situation was desperate, when the Earlof Lancaster, passing by in his ship, saw the peril to which the princewas exposed, and, ranging up on the other side of the Spaniard, stroveto board her there. The attention of the Spaniards being thusdistracted, the prince and his companions made another desperate effort,and succeeded in winning their way on to the deck of the Spanish shipjust as their own vessel sank beneath their feet; after a few minutes'desperate fighting the Spanish ship was captured.

  The English were now everywhere getting the best of their enemies. Manyof the Spanish vessels had been captured or sunk, and after the fighthad raged for some hours, the rest began to disperse and seek safety inflight. The English vessel commanded by Count Robert of Namur had towardnight engaged a Spanish vessel of more than twice its own strength. Hisadversaries, seeing that the day was lost, set all sail, but lookingupon the little vessel beside them as a prey to be taken possession ofat their leisure, they fastened it tightly to their sides by thegrappling-irons, and spreading all sail, made away. The count and hismen were unable to free themselves, and were being dragged away, when afollower of the count named Hennekin leaped suddenly on board theSpanish ship. With a bound he reached the mast, and with a single blowwith his sword cut the halyards which supported the main-sail. The sailfell at once. The Spaniards rushed to the spot to repair the disasterwhich threatened to delay their ship. The count and his followers,seeing the bulwarks of the Spanish vessel for the moment unguarded,poured in, and after a furious conflict captured the vessel. By thistime twenty-four of the enemy's vessels had been taken, the rest wereeither sunk or in full flight, and Edward at once returned to theEnglish shore.

  The fight had taken place within sight of land, and Queen Philippa, fromthe windows of the abbey, which stood on rising ground, had seen theapproach of the vast Spanish fleet, and had watched the conflict untilnight fell. She remained in suspense as to the result until the kinghimself, with the Black Prince and Prince John, afterward known as Johnof Gaunt, who, although but ten years of age, had accompanied the BlackPrince in his ship, rode up with the news of the victory.

  This great sea-fight was one of the brightest and most honorable in theannals of English history, for not even in the case of that other greatSpanish Armada which suffered defeat in English waters were the odds soimmense or the victory so thorough and complete. The result of the fightwas that after some negotiations a truce of twenty years was concludedwith Spain.