tory of the two knights.--Coats of arms.--Quarrel between the
two knights.--Preparations for the battle.--English position.--The
horses and the barbed arrows.--The English victorious.--Fate of the
king's sons.--The victory announced to the prince.--The men called
in.--Gathering at the prince's tent.--Two barons sent to look for the
king.--The King of France and his son taken prisoners.--Quarrel about
them.--The two barons take possession of the prisoners.--Denys.--His
previous adventures.--The king's surrender to him.--Prince Edward
makes a supper for his prisoners.--Generous demeanor of the
prince.--Disposition of the prisoners.--English prisoners.--Douglas's
extraordinary escape from his captors.--Prince Edward conveys the King
of France to London.--Entrance into London.--Magnanimous treatment of
the prisoner.--The war ended.--The king ransomed.--Prince Edward's
renown.--Edward the heir apparent to the crown.

In process of time, Philip, the King of France, against whom these
wars had been waged, died, and John succeeded him. In the course of
the reign of John, the Black Prince, when he was about twenty-five
years of age, set out from England, at the head of a large body of
men, to invade France on the southern and western side. His first
destination was Gascony, a country in the southern part of France,
between the Garonne, the Pyrenees, and the sea.[D]

[Footnote D: See map on page 110.]

From London he went to Plymouth, where the fleet had been assembled in
which he was to sail. He was accompanied on his march by an immense
number of nobles and barons, all splendidly equipped and armed, and
full of enthusiastic expectations of the glory which they were to
acquire in serving in such a campaign, under so famed and brilliant a
commander.

The fleet which awaited the army at Plymouth consisted of three
hundred vessels. The expedition was detained for a long time in the
port, waiting for a fair wind and good weather. At length the
favorable time arrived. The army embarked, and the ships set sail in
sight of a vast assemblage, formed by people of the surrounding
country, who crowded the shores to witness the spectacle.

The ships of those times were not large, and, judging from some of the
pictures that have come down to us, they were of very odd
construction. On the adjoining page is a copy of one of these
pictures, from an ancient manuscript of about this time.

These pictures, however, are evidently intended