ise, but was defeated at
Neville's Cross, in 1346, and taken prisoner.

Philippa here distinguished herself during the absence of the king, by
encouraging the troops and making a telling equestrian speech to them
before the battle. After the capture of Bruce, too, she repaired to
Calais, where she prevented the king's disgraceful execution of six
respectable citizens who had been sent to surrender the city.

[Illustration: A CLOSE CALL FOR THE SIX CITIZENS OF CALAIS.]

During a truce between the English and French, England was visited by
the Black Death, a plague that came from Asia and bade fair to
depopulate the country. London lost fifty thousand people, and at times
there were hardly enough people left to bury the dead or till the
fields. This contagion occurred in 1349, and even attacked the domestic
animals.

[Illustration: NO MONARCH OF SPIRIT CARES TO HAVE HIS THRONE PULLED FROM
UNDER HIM JUST AS HE IS ABOUT TO OCCUPY IT.]

John having succeeded Philip in France, in 1350 Edward made another
effort to recover the French throne; but no monarch of spirit cares to
have his throne pulled from beneath him just as he is about to occupy
it, and so, when the Black Prince began to burn and plunder southern
France, his father made a similar excursion from Calais, in 1355.

The next year the Black Prince sent twelve thousand men into the heart
of France, where they met an army of sixty thousand, and the English
general offered all his conquests cheerfully to John for the privilege
of returning to England; but John overstepped himself by demanding an
unconditional surrender, and a battle followed in which the French were
whipped out of their boots and the king captured. We should learn from
this to know when we have enough.

This battle was memorable because the English loss was mostly confined
to the common soldiery, while among the French it was peculiarly fatal
to the nobility. Two dukes, nineteen counts, five thousand men-at-arms,
and eight thousand infantry were killed, and a bobtail flush royal was
found to have been bagged as prisoners.

For four years John was a prisoner, but well treated. He was then
allowed to resume his renovated throne; but failing to keep good his
promises to the English, he came back to London by request, and died
there in 1364.

The war continued under Charles, the new French monarch; and though
Edward was an able and courteous foe, in 1370 he became so irritated
because of the revo