ld no
longer stand upright; therefore she cast herself on her knees before her
lord the King and spake on this wise: 'Ah, gentle sire, from the day that I
passed over sea in great peril, as you know, I have asked for nothing: now
pray I and beseech you, with folded hands, for the love of our Lady's Son
to have mercy upon them.' The gentle King waited a while before speaking,
and looked on the Queen as she knelt before him bitterly weeping. Then
began his heart to soften a little, and he said, 'Lady, I would rather you
had been otherwhere; you pray so tenderly that I dare not refuse you; and
though I do it against my will, nevertheless take them, I give them to
you.' Then took he the six citizens by the halters and delivered them to
the Queen, and released from death all those of Calais for the love of her;
and the good lady bade them clothe the six burgesses and make them good
cheer."

CHAPTER III
THE PEASANT REVOLT
1347-1381

[Sidenote: Edward the Third]

Still in the vigour of manhood, for he was but thirty-five, Edward the
Third stood at the height of his renown. He had won the greatest victory of
his age. France, till now the first of European states, was broken and
dashed from her pride of place at a single blow. The kingdom seemed to lie
at Edward's mercy, for Guienne was recovered, Flanders was wholly on his
side, and Britanny, where the capture of Charles of Blois secured the
success of his rival and the English party which supported him, opened the
road to Paris. At home his government was popular, and Scotland, the one
enemy he had to dread, was bridled by the capture of her king. How great
his renown was in Europe was seen in 1347, when on the death of Lewis of
Bavaria the electors offered him the Imperial Crown. Edward was in truth a
general of a high order, and he had shown himself as consummate a
strategist in the campaign as a tactician in the field. But to the world
about him he was even more illustrious as the foremost representative of
the showy chivalry of his day. He loved the pomp of tournaments; he revived
the Round Table of the fabled Arthur; he celebrated his victories by the
creation of a new order of knighthood. He had varied the sterner operations
of the siege of Calais by a hand-to-hand combat with one of the bravest of
the French knights. A naval picture of Froissart sketches Edward for us as
he sailed to meet a Spanish fleet which was sweeping the narrow seas. We
see the kin