thout accomplishing anything
worthy of their fame. The Black Prince, soured by failure and
ill-health, having succeeded in =1370= in recapturing Limoges, ordered
his men to spare no one in the town. "It was great pity," wrote the
chronicler Froissart, "for men, women, and children threw themselves
on their knees before the Prince, crying 'Mercy! mercy! gentle Sire!'"
The Prince, who had waited at table behind a captive king, hardened
his heart. More than three thousand--men, women and children--were
butchered on that day. Yet the spirit of chivalry was strong within
him, and he spared three gentlemen who fought bravely merely in order
to sell their lives dearly. In =1371= the Black Prince was back in
England. His eldest surviving brother, John of Gaunt--or Ghent--Duke
of Lancaster, continued the war in France. In =1372= the English lost
town after town. In =1373= John of Gaunt set out from Calais. He could
plunder, but he could not make the enemy fight. "Let them go," wrote
Charles V. to his commanders; "by burning they will not become masters
of your heritage. Though storms rage over a land, they disperse of
themselves. So will it be with these English." When the English
reached the hilly centre of France food failed them. The winter came,
and horses and men died of cold and want. A rabble of half-starved
fugitives was all that reached Bordeaux after a march of six hundred
miles. Aquitaine, where the inhabitants were for the most part hostile
to the English, and did everything in their power to assist the
French, was before long all but wholly lost, and in =1375= a truce was
made which put an end to hostilities for a time, leaving only Calais,
Cherbourg, Brest, Bayonne, and Bordeaux in the hands of the English.

5. =Anti-Papal Legislation. 1351--1366.=--The antagonism between
England and France necessarily led to an antagonism between England
and the Papacy. Since =1305= the Popes had fixed their abode at
Avignon, and though Avignon was not yet incorporated with France, it
was near enough to be under the control of the king of France. During
the time of this exile from Rome, known to ardent churchmen as the
Babylonian captivity of the Church, the Popes were regarded in England
as the tools of the French enemy. The Papal court, too, became
distinguished for luxury and vice, and its vast expenditure called for
supplies which England was increasingly loth to furnish. By a system
of provisions, as they were called, the Pop