ong, who were now riding in a great circle through Southern France,
leaving a broad wale of blackened and ruined country behind them.

But France, even with her southwestern corner in English hands, was
still a very warlike power, far richer and more populous than her rival.
Single Provinces were so great that they were stronger than many a
kingdom. Normandy in the north, Burgundy in the east, Brittany in the
west and Languedoc in the south were each capable of fitting out a great
army of their own. Therefore the brave and spirited John, watching from
Paris this insolent raid into his dominions, sent messengers in hot
haste to all these great feudatories as well as to Lorraine, Picardy,
Auvergne, Hainault, Vermandois, Champagne, and to the German mercenaries
over his eastern border, bidding all of them to ride hard, with bloody
spur, day and night, until they should gather to a head at Chartres.

There a great army had assembled early in September, whilst the Prince,
all unconscious of its presence sacked towns and besieged castles from
Bourges to Issodun, passing Romorautin, and so onward to Vierzon and to
Tours. From week to week there were merry skirmishes at barriers, brisk
assaults of fortresses in which much honor was won, knightly meetings
with detached parties of Frenchmen and occasional spear-runnings where
noble champions deigned to venture their persons. Houses, too, were
to be plundered, while wine and women were in plenty. Never had either
knights or archers had so pleasant and profitable an excursion, so that
it was with high heart and much hope of pleasant days at Bordeaux with
their pockets full of money that the army turned south from the Loire
and began to retrace its steps to the seaboard city.

But now its pleasant and martial promenade changed suddenly to very
serious work of war. As the Prince moved south he found that all,
supplies had been cleared away from in front of him and that there was
neither fodder for the horses nor food for the men. Two hundred wagons
laden with spoil rolled at the head of the army, but the starving
soldiers would soon have gladly changed it all for as many loads of
bread and of meat. The light troops of the French had preceded then and
burned or destroyed everything that could be of use. Now also for the
first time the Prince and his men became aware that a great army was
moving upon the eastern side of them, streaming southward in the hope of
cutting off their retrea