recalling of all the "companies" from his service; and so much
reverence did they bear to the name of Edward, that great numbers of
them immediately withdrew from Spain, and enlisted under his banners.
Henry, however, beloved by his new subjects, and supported by the king
of Arragon and others of his neighbors, was able to meet the enemy with
an army of one hundred thousand men; forces three times more numerous
than those which were commanded by Edward. Du Guesclin, and all his
experienced officers, advised him to delay any decisive action, to cut
off the prince of Wales's provisions, and to avoid every engagement with
a general, whose enterprises had hitherto been always conducted with
prudence, and crowned with success. Henry trusted too much to his
numbers; and ventured to encounter the English prince at Najara.[*]

* Froissard, liv. i. chap. 241.

Historians of that age are commonly very copious in describing the shock
of armies in battle, the valor of the combatants, the slaughter and
various successes of the day: but though small rencounters in those
times were often well disputed, military discipline was always too
imperfect to preserve order in great armies; and such actions deserve
more the name of routs than of battles. Henry was chased off the field,
with the loss of above twenty thousand men: there perished only four
knights and forty private men on the side of the English.

Peter, who so well merited the infamous epithet which he bore, purposed
to murder all his prisoners in cold blood; but was restrained from this
barbarity by the remonstrance, of the prince of Wales. All Castile now
submitted to the victor: Peter was restored to the throne; and Edward
finished his perilous enterprise with his usual glory. But he had soon
reason to repent his connections with a man like Peter, abandoned to all
sense of virtue and honor. The ungrateful tyrant refused the stipulated
pay to the English forces; and Edward finding his soldiers daily perish
by sickness, and even his own health impaired by the climate, was
obliged, without receiving any satisfaction on this head, to return into
Guienne.[*]

The barbarities exercised by Peter over his helpless subjects, whom
he now regarded as vanquished rebels, revived all the animosity of
the Castilians against him; and on the return of Henry of Transtamare,
together with Du Guesclin, and some forces levied anew in France, the
tyrant was again dethroned, and was taken pr