he will not fly, but may be taken prisoner; and, sir, I
heard you say that this day I should see you a good knight.'

'John,' said the prince, 'let us go forth; you shall not see me turn
back this day, but I will ever be with the foremost'; then the prince
and his friend rode into the thickest of the fight.

Where the battle raged most fiercely the French king, with his young
son Philip by his side, was laying about him with his battle-axe. When
the nobles around him were slain or had fled, the brave lad refused to
leave his father, who made his last stand with the blood streaming down
from a wound in the face.

At last the king was forced to yield, and he gave his glove to a
banished French knight, Sir Denis de Marbeke, in token of surrender.

When the French were fleeing from the field, the Black Prince had
become so exhausted with fighting that Sir John Chandos persuaded him
to retire to his tent and take some rest.

Presently the news came to the royal tent that the king had been taken
prisoner, and was on his way to the English camp. The prince
immediately sent two of his lords to meet him, and had him brought to
his own tent, where he received his brave enemy with the greatest
respect.

[Illustration: The French King brought prisoner to the Black Prince
after Poitiers.]

After the king had rested and refreshed himself, the prince invited him
and the other captive nobles to a supper in his tent, and Prince Edward
himself waited upon King John, saying that he was not worthy to sit at
table with so great a prince and so valiant a man.

Soon after this the English returned to their own country, bringing
with them the French king and many other prisoners.

The victorious army was received with the greatest joy; and on the day
when the Black Prince entered London, the people crowded by thousands
into the streets to see him pass as he rode on a little pony by the
side of his prisoner, King John of France, whom he had mounted upon his
own magnificent cream-coloured charger.

King John was kept, an honourable prisoner, until a peace was made with
France. Then he was allowed to return to his own country upon
condition that the French should pay, within six years, a sum of money
for his ransom.

Until the ransom should be paid, the French king's three sons agreed to
remain as hostages in the town of Calais, which belonged to the
English. They were allowed to ride into French territory as often as
they pleas