d setting upon the throne of Castile a prince necessarily
allied to the King of France. The question of rivalry between the two
kings and the two peoples had thus been transferred into Spain, and for
the moment the victory remained with France. After several months'
preparation the prince of Wales, purchasing the complicity of the King of
Navarre, marched into Spain in February, 1367, with an army of twenty-
seven thousand men, and John Chandos, the most able of the English
warriors. Henry of Transtamare had troops more numerous, but less
disciplined and experienced. The two armies joined battle on the 3d of
April, 1367, at Najara or Navarette, not far from the Ebro. Disorder and
even sheer rout soon took place amongst that of Henry, who flung himself
before the fugitives, shouting, "Why would ye thus desert and betray me,
ye who have made me King of Castile? Turn back and stand by me; and by
the grace of God the day shall be ours." Du Guesclin and his men-at-arms
maintained the fight with stubborn courage, but at last they were beaten,
and either slain or taken. To the last moment Du Guesclin, with his back
against a wall, defended himself heroically against a host of assailants.
The Prince of Wales, coming up, cried out, "Gentle marshals of France,
and you too, Bertrand, yield yourselves to me." "Why, yonder men are my
foes," cried the king, Don Pedro; "it is they who took from me my
kingdom, and on them I mean to take vengeance." Du Guesclin, darting
forward, struck so rough a blow with his sword at Don Pedro, that he
brought him fainting to the ground, and then turning to the Prince of
Wales said, "Nathless I give up my sword to the most valiant prince on
earth." The Prince of Wales took the sword, and charged the Captal of
Buch with the prisoner's keeping. "Aha! sir Bertrand," said the Captal
to Du Guesclin, "you took me at the battle of Cocherel, and to-day I've
got you." "Yes," replied Du Guesclin; "but at Cocherel I took you
myself, and here you are only my keeper."

The battle of Najara being over, and Don Pedro the Cruel restored to a
throne which he was not to occupy for long, the Prince of Wales returned
to Bordeaux with his army and his prisoner Du Guesclin, whom he treated
courteously, at the same time that he kept him pretty strictly. One of
the English chieftains who had been connected with Du Guesclin at the
time of his expedition into Spain, Sir Hugh Calverley, tried one day to
induce the