dies, and swept round on one side himself, while the Count of Flanders
did the same on the other to attack the Prince of Wales in more regular
array. Taking a circuitous route, D'Alencon appeared upon a rising
ground on the flank of the archers of the Black Prince, and thus,
avoiding their arrows, charged down with his cavalry upon the 800
men-at-arms gathered round the Black Prince, while the Count of Flanders
attacked on the other flank. Nobly did the flower of English chivalry
withstand the shock of the French, and the prince himself and the
highest nobles and simple men-at-arms fought side by side. None gave
away a foot.

In vain the French, with impetuous charges, strove to break through the
mass of steel. The spear-heads were cleft off with sword and battle-axe,
and again and again men and horses recoiled from the unbroken line.
Each time the French retired the English ranks were formed anew, and
as attack followed attack a pile of dead rose around them. The Count
D'Alencon and the Duke of Lorraine were among the first who fell. The
young Count of Blois, finding that he could not ride through the wall
of steel, dismounted with his knights and fought his way on foot
towards the banner of the Prince of Wales. For a time the struggle was
desperate, and the young prince, with his household knights, was for a
time well-nigh beaten back.

Walter, fighting close beside the prince, parried more than one blow
intended for him, and the prince himself slew the Count of Blois, whose
followers all fell around him. The Count of Flanders was also slain, and
confusion began to reign among the assailants, whose leaders had now
all fallen. Phillip himself strove to advance with his division into
the fight, but the struggle between the Genoese and the men-at-arms was
still continuing, and the very multitude of his troops in the narrow and
difficult field which the English had chosen for the battle embarrassed
his movements.

Charles of Luxembourg, King of the Romans, and afterwards Emperor of
Germany, son of the old King of Bohemia, with a large body of German and
French cavalry, now assailed the English archers, and in spite of their
flights of arrows came to close quarters, and cutting their way through
them joined in the assault upon the men-at-arms of the Black Prince.
Nearly 40,000 men were now pressing round the little body, and the Earls
of Northampton and Arundel moved forward with their divisions to his
support, whil