Page:Historyoffranc00yong.djvu/81

 v.] THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR. 57 rout and dismay. " Ride forward, the day is yours ' " cried Chandos to his prince ; and as the English rushed on in full career, the main body of the French army with John's three elder sons took flight, John himself kept his own troop firm, calling on them to dismount and use swords and battle-axes, but they had not weight enough to stand the English charge, and were broken and trodden down, so that the king fought bravely, but had no choice but to surrender. This battle, called after the city of Poitiers, was fought on the 19th of September, 1356. It cost France 1 1,000 slain, and 2,000 prisoners of knightly rank. 8. Stephen Marcel, 1356 and Jacquerie. — Paris, under Stephen Marcel, the provost of the merchants, prepared for defence, and gave no warm welcome to the runaway princes. The Dauphin Charles was a man of weak health and no soldier, but of keen, crafty wit, well able to bide his time. When, in the States General, which he assembled to provide for defence, he found Marcel the leading spirit, he made no protest against a decree that the King of Navarre should be released, and that he himself should be controlled as Lieutenant of the kingdom by a council of 36, who were to reform the abuses per- petrated by the royal officers. It was indeed time. The miseries of France were unspeakable. Bands of Free Lances roamed the country, living by ruthless plunder of the peasants ; yet they were harcuy more cruel than the lords of the soil themselves, who, wanting money for their ransoms, beat and tortured unmercifully such of the peasants as they suspected of having hoarded their savings. The saying among the gentry was, "Jacques Bonhomrae has a broad back and must bear the burthen ; " and the wretchedness of the peasants was such that they hid themselves in the woods, or dug pits to lurk in out of sight of their tormentors, nor was there any pity for them. The Dauphin could no longer delay the release of the King of Navarre, who entered Paris with great pomp, and m.ade a speech, hinting at his own claims to the crown. A semblance was made of giving back his county of Evreux ; but the castles were not yielded, and John sent commands from England forbidding heed to the decrees of the States General. Such baffling of their measures enraged the popular party, and Marcel, feeling himself strong enough to overcome the Dauphin, entered the Louvre, and called