ries and Flanders, seeking out
both of them the most favorable position for commencing the attack. On
Sunday, the 27th of August, 1214, Philip had halted near the bridge of
Bouvines, not far from Lille, and was resting under an ash beside a small
chapel dedicated to St. Peter. There came running to him a messenger,
sent by Guerin, Bishop of Senlis, his confidant in war as well as
government, and brought him word that his rear-guard, attacked by the
Emperor Otho, was not sufficient to resist him. Philip went into the
chapel, said a short prayer, and cried as he came out, "Haste we forward
to the rescue of our comrades!" Then he put on his armor, mounted his
horse, and made swiftly for the point of attack, amidst the shouts of all
those who were about him, "To arms! to arms!"

[Illustration: BATTLE OF BOUVINES----81]

Both armies numbered in their ranks not only all the feudal chivalry on
the two sides, but burgher-forces, those from the majority of the great
cities of Flanders being for Otho, and those from sixteen towns or
communes of France for Philip Augustus. It was not, as we have seen, the
first time that the forces from the French rural districts had taken part
in the king's wars; Louis the Fat had often received their aid against
the tyrannical and turbulent lords of his small kingdom; but since the
reign of Louis the Fat the organization and importance of the communes
had made great progress in France; and it was not only rural communes,
but considerable cities, such as Amiens, Arras, Beauvais, Compiegne, and
Soissons, which sent to the army of Philip Augustus bodies of men in
large numbers and ready trained to arms. Contemporary historians put the
army of Otho at one hundred thousand, and that of Philip Augustus at from
fifty to sixty thousand men; but amongst modern historians one of the
most eminent, M. Sismondi, reduces them both to some fifteen or twenty
thousand. One would say that the reduction is as excessive as the
original estimate. However that may be, the communal forces evidently
filled an important place in the king's army at Bouvines, and maintained
it brilliantly. So soon as Philip had placed himself at the head of the
first line of his troops, "the men of Soissons," says William the Breton,
who was present at the battle, "being impatient and inflamed by the words
of Bishop Guerin, let out their horses at the full speed of their legs,
and attacked the enemy. But the Flemish knights pric