nly defied the King of
France, his suzerain, was obliged to fly to England, and the King of
Navarre entered upon negotiations alternately with Edward III. and
Charles V., being always ready to betray either, according to what suited
his interests at the moment. Tired of so many ineffectual efforts,
Edward III. was twice obliged, between 1375 and 1377, to conclude with
Charles V. a truce, just to give the two peoples, as well as the two
kings, breathing-time; but the truces were as vain as the petty combats
for the purpose of putting an end to this great struggle.

The great actors in this historical drama did not know how near were the
days when they would be called away from this arena, still so crowded
with their exploits or their reverses. A few weeks after the massacre of
Limoges the Prince of Wales lost, at Bordeaux, his eldest son, six years
old, whom he loved with all the tenderness of a veteran warrior, so much
the more affected by gentle impressions as they were a rarity to him; and
he was himself so ill that "his doctors advised him to return to England,
his own land, saying that he would probably get better health there."
Accordingly he left France, which he would never see again, and, on
returning to England, he, after a few months' rest in the country, took
an active part in Parliament in the home-policy of his country, and
supported the opposition against the government of his father, who since
the death of the queen, Philippa of Hainault, had been treating England
to the spectacle of a scandalous old age closing a life of glory.
Parliamentary contests soon exhausted the remaining strength of the Black
Prince, and he died on the 8th of June, 1376, in possession of a
popularity that never shifted, and was deserved by such qualities as
showed a nature great indeed and generous, though often sullied by the
fits of passion of a character harsh even to ferocity. "The good fortune
of England," says his contemporary Walsingham, "seemed bound up with his
person, for it flourished when he was well, fell off when he was ill, and
vanished at his death. As long as he was on the spot the English feared
neither the foe's invasion nor the meeting on the battle-field; but with
him died all their hopes." A year after him, on the 21st of June, 1377,
died his father, Edward III., a king who had been able, glorious, and
fortunate for nearly half a century, but had fallen, towards the end of
his life, into contempt with hi