tes, ipsi Salvatori nostro laudes et gracias humiliter
exsolvimus, deprecantes, ut, qui jam et semper in oportunitatibus
copiosis graciis[138] nos praevenit continuatis, nos auxiliis
prosequatur, et nobis regere temporaliter sic concedat in terris, ut
in eo laetemur aeternaliter in excelsis. Dileccionem vestram attente
rogamus et per Dei misericordiam obsecramus, quatinus soli Deo vivo,
qui tantum signum nobiscum fecit in bonum, in devotae laudis praeconium
assurgentes, nos, jam in remotis agentes, et nedum jura nostra
recuperare, sed sanctam ecclesiam catholicam attollere, et in justicia
populum regere cupientes, sibi devotis oracionum instanciis
recomendare curetis, facientes pro nobis missas, et alia piae
placacionis officia misericorditer exerceri, et ad hoc clerum et
populum vestrae diocesis salutaribus monitis inducatis, ut Deus ipse,
miseratus nobis, progressum felicem et exitum annuat graciosum, detque
servo suo cor docile, ut recte judicare possimus et regere et sic
facere quod praecipit, ut mereamur assequi quod promittit. Teste
Edwardo duce Cornubiae et Comite Cestriae filio nostro carissimo Custode
Angliae apud Waltham Sanctae Crucis xxviii^{vo}. die Junii, anno Regni
nostri Angliae xiiii^{to}. Regni vero Franciae primo."

[Footnote 136: _Sic._]

[Footnote 137: _Sic._]

[Footnote 138: _Sic._]

It is however manifest from that document having been tested by the
Prince of Wales, that it was rather a proclamation issued in
consequence of the dispatch from the king to the prince, than the
dispatch itself, of which the letter now for the first time printed
may be deemed the only copy which is extant. Nor must it be forgotten
that the date affixed to the article given by Avesbury tends to excite
a suspicion of its authenticity; for it is tested by the prince at
Waltham Holy Cross upon the precise day, the 28th of June, on which
the king's letter was written, and which could not therefore possibly
have arrived on the day in question at Waltham. It is somewhat
singular that as the battle was concluded on the 25th of June, the
king should not have written until the 28th; but this may perhaps be
accounted for by those arrangements which his success would
necessarily have required, and which may be supposed to have engaged
the monarch's whole attention for some days. The letter in Avesbury's
Annals gives no particulars of the battle, though that writer relates
that the enemy were beaten; that more than thirty thou