s with France that would not bear inspection by
English eyes, and perhaps he trusted to the remoteness and obscurity of
his two castles to save him from the notice of the Prince.

The terror inspired by the English arms in France is a thing that must
always excite the wonder and curiosity of the readers of history. It was
displayed on and after the Battle of Crecy, when Edward's army, if
numbers counted for anything, ought to have been simply annihilated by
the vast musters of the French, who were in their own land surrounded by
friends, whilst the English were a small band in the midst of a hostile
and infuriated population. This same thing was seen again in the march
of the Prince of Wales, soon to be called the Black Prince, when city
after city bought him off, hopeless of resisting his progress; and when
the army mustered by the Count of Armagnac to oppose the retreat of the
English to Bordeaux with their spoil was seized with a panic after the
merest skirmish, and fled, leaving the Prince to pursue his way unmolested.

If the conduct of the English army was somewhat inglorious, certainly
the behaviour of their foes was still more so. The English were always
ready to fight if they could find an enemy to meet them. Possibly the
doubtful character of the Prince's first campaign was less his fault
than that of his pusillanimous enemies.

Bordeaux reached, however, and the Gascon soldiers dismissed to their
homes for the winter months, the Prince promising to lead them next year
upon a more glorious campaign, in which fresh spoil was to be won and
more victories achieved, there was time for the consideration of objects
of minor importance, and a breathing space wherein private interests
could be considered.

Gaston had repressed all impatience during the march of the Prince. He
had not looked that his own affairs should take the foremost place in
the Prince's scheme. Moreover, he saw well that it would give a false
colour to the expedition if the first march of the Prince had been into
Gascony; nor was the capture of so obscure a fortress as the Castle of
Saut a matter to engross the energies of the whole of the allied army.

But now that the army was partially disbanded, whilst the English
contingent was either in winter quarters in Bordeaux or engaged here and
there in the capture of such cities and fortresses as the Prince decided
worth the taking, the moment appeared to be favourable for that
long-wished-for cap