ess efforts and the sufferings of their countries, determined both
of them to make peace and share Brittany between them. Rennes was to be
Charles's capital, and Nantes that of his rival. The treaty had been
signed, an altar raised between the two armies, and an oath taken on both
sides; but when Joan of Penthivre was informed of it she refused
downright to ratify it. "I married you," she said to her husband, "to
defend my inheritance, and not to yield the half of it; I am only a
woman, but I would lose my life, and two lives if I had them, rather than
consent to any cession of the kind." Charles of Blois, as weak before
his wife as brave before the enemy, broke the treaty he had but just
sworn to, and set out for Nantes to resume the war. "My lord," said
Countess Joan to him in presence of all his knights, "you are going to
defend my inheritance and yours, which my lord of Montfort--wrongfully,
God knows--doth withhold from us, and the barons of Brittany who are here
present know that I am rightful heiress of it. I pray you affectionately
not to make any ordinance, composition, or treaty whereby the duchy
corporate remain not ours." Charles set out; and in the following year,
on the 29th of September, 1364, the battle of Auray cost him his life and
the countship of Brittany. When he was wounded to death he said, "I have
long been at war against my conscience." At sight of his dead body on
the field of battle young John of Montfort, his conqueror, was touched,
and cried out, "Alas my cousin, by your obstinacy you have been the cause
of great evils in Brittany: may God forgive you! It grieves me much that
you are come to so sad an end." After this outburst of generous
compassion came the joy of victory, which Montfort owed above all to his
English allies and to John Chandos their leader, to whom, "My Lord John,"
said he, "this great fortune path come to me through your great sense and
prowess: wherefore, I pray you, drink out of my cup." "Sir," answered
Chandos, "let us go hence, and render you your thanks to God for this
happy fortune you have gotten, for, without the death of yonder warrior,
you could not have come into the inheritance of Brittany." From that day
forth John of Monfort remained in point of fact Duke of Brittany, and
Joan of Penthievre, the Cripple, the proud princess who had so
obstinately defended her rights against him, survived for full twenty
years the death of her husband and the loss of