Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/508

 472 Readings in European History How the Black Prince received the French king with knightly courtesy. The same day of the battle at night the prince made a supper in his lodging to the French king and to the most of the great lords that were prisoners. The prince made the king and his son, the lord James of Bourbon, the lord John of Artois, the earl of Tancreville, the earl of Estampes, the earl Dammartin, the earl Joinville, and the lord of Partenay, to sit all at one board, and the other lords, knights, and squires at other tables. And always the prince served before the king as humbly as he could, and would not sit at the king's board for any desire that the king could make, for he said he was not sufficient to sit at the table with so great a prince as the king was. Then he said to the king: " Sir, for God's sake, make none evil nor heavy cheer, though God this day did not consent to follow your will ; for, sir, surely the king, my father, shall bear you as much honor and amity as he may do, and shall accord with you so reasonably that ye shall ever be friends together after. And, sir, methink ye ought to rejoice, though the expedition be not as ye would have had it, for this day ye have won the high renown of prowess and have surpassed this day in valiantness all other of your party. Sir, I say not this to mock you, for all that be of our party, that saw every man's deeds, are plainly accorded by true sentence to give you the prize and chaplet." . 199. Sack of Limoges (1370) b y the Black Prince. (From Froissart's Chronicles.) III. FEARFUL DEVASTATION WROUGHT IN FRANCE BY THE HUNDRED YEARS' WAR [Having mined the town walls,] the miners set fire into their mine, and so the next morning, as the prince had ordained, there fell down a great piece of the wall and filled the moats, whereof the Englishmen were glad and were ready armed in the field to enter the town. The foot-men might well enter at their ease, and so they did, and ran to the gate and beat down the fortifying and barriers, for there was no defense against them: it was done so suddenly that they of the town were not aware thereof.