on. He drew up his army on
a gentle ascent, and divided them into three lines: the first was
commanded by the prince of Wales, and under him by the earls of Warwick
and Oxford, by Harcourt, and by the lords Chandos, Holland, and
other noblemen: the earls of Arundel and Northampton, with the lords
Willoughby, Basset, Roos, and Sir Lewis Tufton, were at the head of the
second line: he took to himself the command of the third division, by
which he purposed either to bring succor to the two first lines, or to
secure a retreat in case of any misfortune, or to push his advantages
against the enemy. He had likewise the precaution to throw up trenches
on his flanks, in order to secure himself from the numerous bodies of
the French who might assail him from that quarter; and he placed all
his baggage behind him in a wood, which he also secured by an
intrenchment.[*]

* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 128.

The skill and order of this disposition, with the tranquillity in which
it was made, served extremely to compose the minds of the soldiers; and
the king, that he might further inspirit them, rode through the ranks
with such an air of cheerfulness and alacrity, as conveyed the highest
confidence into every beholder. He pointed out to them the necessity
to which they were reduced, and the certain and inevitable destruction
which awaited them, if, in their present situation, enclosed on all
hands in an enemy's country, they trusted to any thing but their own
valor, or gave that enemy an opportunity of taking revenge for the many
insults and indignities which they had of late put upon him. He reminded
them of the visible ascendant which they had hitherto maintained over
all the bodies of French troops that had fallen in their way; and
assured them, that the superior numbers of the army which at present
hovered over them, gave them not greater force, but was an advantage
easily compensated by the order in which he had placed his own army,
and the resolution which he expected from them. He demanded nothing,
he said, but that they would imitate his own example, and that of the
prince of Wales: and as the honor, the lives, the liberties of all, were
now exposed to the same danger, he was confident that they would make
one common effort to extricate themselves from the present difficulties,
and that their united courage would give them the victory over all their
enemies.

It is related by some historians,[*] that Edward, besides the r