Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/474

 470 CRCY CREDIT MOBILISE rich English woman, so much that she came to France and married him. The least objection- able of these novels is Les egarements du cceur et de T esprit. He was also a song maker, and aided in the establishment of the lyric society known as Le caveau. CRECY, or Cressy, a village of N. France, in the department of Somme (Picardy), 11 m. N. of Abbeville ; pop. about 1,700. The village is situated on the small river Maye, a tributary of the Somme. It has tanneries, soap and oil manufactories, and considerable trade in wood from the adjoining forests. Cr6cy owes its celebrity to the battle fought, Aug. 26, 1346, between the English under Ed- ward III. and the French under Philip VI. Some discrepancy exists in the estimates of the respective forces. Froissart makes the English 30,000 to 40,000, and the French 100,000 to 120,000. Turner says the English army com- prised 800 men-at-arms, 2,000 archers, and 1,000 Welsh, under the Black Prince; 800' men-at-arms and 1,200 archers, under the earl of Northampton ; and the reserve, under the king, not engaged in the battle, 700 men-at- arms and 2,000 archers. Allowing for retain- ers, the total number may be computed at 17,000. Reducing the estimate of the French in the same ratio, we may assume the battle to have been fought between 17,000 English and 50,000 to 60,000 French. Edward saw the danger to which a hasty retreat would expose him in face of the enemy's superior force ; he therefore determined to make a stand. Select- ing a rising ground near Crcy, he drew up his army on the ascent, and threw up trenches on his flanks, with a wood in his rear which he also secured by intrenchment. Villani alleges that Edward had six pieces of artillery, which he posted so as to sweep the enemy's advance. Artillery had been recently invented, and does not appear to have been in use in the field until the present occasion. Philip was confi- dent that he had only to force the English to an engagement to destroy them utterly ; hence he advanced his troops with little attention to order or discipline. His advanced guard of Genoese bowmen began the attack, but rain having fallen, their arrows fell short. The English sent a shower of shafts that drove the Italians back on the cavalry of the duke d'Alen- 9on. The English artillery opened fire, and the prince of Wales (aged 15) charged with his men-at-arms on the struggling mass. An opportune movement of the French retrieved their fortunes, and for a long time the battle hung doubtfully. Lord Cobham despatched Sir Thomas Norwich to the king requesting him to send the reserve to the assistance of the prince. "No," said Edward; "tell my boy he must win his spurs." This speech in- vigorated the English. They again charged. The duke d'Alencon was killed and the French line was broken. Philip made a final effort to recover the day, but without effect. The rout had become a flight. Of the French 30,000 perished, including 2,600 knights and gentle- men and 4,000 men-at-arms, while the English loss was comparatively small. Froissart relates the singular fate of King John of Bohemia. Being old and blind, he ordered the bridle of his horse to be tied on each side to the horses of two cavaliers of his train, and, thus guided, charged into the battle, where he fell, together with his attendants. His crest, consisting of three ostrich feathers, with the motto Icli dien (I serve), was, according to the custom of chivalry, adopted by the Black Prince, and is still the crest of the prince of Wales. This battle broke for a time the power of France, and enabled the English in the following year to become masters of Calais. CREDI, Lorenzo di, a Florentine artist, born about 1453, died about 1536. He was a fel- low pupil of Leonardo da Vinci, and so closely followed his style that some of his copies of Leonardo's works are scarcely to be distin- guished from the originals. His "Holy Fami- lies," of which he painted a great number for private collections, are gracefully designed and highly finished. His most esteemed works are a " Madonna and Child with Saints Julian and Nicholas," now in the Louvre gallery, and the " Birth of Christ," at Florence. CREDIT MOBILIER, a joint-stock company founded in Paris Nov. 18, 1852, under the lead of the brothers Emile and Isaac Pereire, and on the principle of limited liability, for the transaction of general banking business, to facilitate the construction of public works, and to develop national industry. Its capital of 60,000,000 francs was divided into shares of 500 francs. It wag authorized by its char- ter to hold public securities and shares and bonds of industrial corporations, and to issue its own bonds to an amount equal to its sub- scriptions and purchases, and, after its original capital was all taken, to issue bonds to the ex- tent of ten times that amount. The charter conferred unlimited power to engage in finan- cial operations, except that it forbade the selling of public securities in advance and the buying of them on time. The annual pro- fits of the company varied very widely ; the highest dividend being about 41 per cent., in 1855, and the lowest 5 per cent., in 1857-'8 and 1865-'7. The average for 15 years (1853-'67) was nearly 17 per cent. Among the enter- prises achieved by this company were the con- solidation of the Paris gas and omnibus com- panies, the creation of the company of the Grand Hotel du Louvre, and of the maritime company of clippers, immense railway opera- tions in Austria, Spain, Russia, and Switzerland, and heavy loans to French railway companies. From the first it met with powerful opposition. M. Fould, minister of finance, was strongly against it. M. Berry er called it "the greatest gambling house which the world has ever seen." In 1867, having for three years paid but trifling dividends, it lost the confidence of the share- holders, and the stock fell to 28 per cent, of