t
a little distance from the fight; the knights around him told him the
events as they happened, and the old monarch soon saw that the day was
lost. He asked them for tidings of his son Charles of Luxembourg, but
they were forced to reply that the banner of the King of the Romans was
no longer in sight, but that, doubtless, he was somewhere engaged in the
melee.

"Lords," said the old man, "you are my vassals, my friends, and my
companions, and on this day I command and beseech you to lead me forward
so far that I may deal one blow of my sword in the battle."

His faithful friends obeyed him, a number of knights arranged themselves
around him, and lest they should lose him in the fight they tied their
horses together by the bridles and charged down into the fray. Advancing
directly against the banner of the Prince of Wales, the blind monarch
was carried into the midst of the thickest strife.

There the little group of knights fought gallantly, and after the
battle was over, the bodies of the king and his friends were found lying
together, their dead horses still linked by the bridles.

During this terrible battle, which had been raging since three o'clock,
Phillip had made strenuous efforts to aid his troops engaged in the
front by continually sending fresh bodies to the assault. It was now
growing dark, terror and confusion had already spread among the French,
and many were flying in all directions, and the unremitting showers of
English arrows still flew like hail among their ranks. As the king made
his way forward, surrounded by his personal attendants to take part
himself in the fight, his followers fell thick around him, and his horse
was slain by an arrow. John of Hainault, who had remained by his side
during the whole day, mounted upon a fresh horse and urged him to fly,
as the day was lost. Phillip, however, persisted, and made his way into
the melee, where he fought for some time with extreme courage, until
almost all around him were slain, the royal standard bearer killed, and
himself wounded in two places. John of Hainault then seized his bridle
exclaiming "Come away, sire, it is full time; do not throw your life
away foolishly; if you have lost this day you will win another," and so
almost forced the unwilling king from the field. Phillip, accompanied by
the lords of Montmorency, Beaujeu, Aubigny, and Mansault, with John of
Hainault, and sixty men-at-arms, rode to the Castle of Broye, and there
halted fo