A
glance at their shields would have given their names to any
soldier, for they were all men of fame who had seen much warfare.
At present they were awaiting their orders, for each of them
commanded the whole or part of a division of the army. The youth
upon the left, dark, slim and earnest, was William Montacute, Earl
of Salisbury, only twenty-eight years of age and yet a veteran of
Crecy. How high he stood in reputation is shown by the fact that
the command of the rear, the post of honor in a retreating army,
had been given to him by the Prince. He was talking to a grizzled
harsh-faced man, somewhat over middle age, with lion features and
fierce light-blue eyes which gleamed as they watched the distant
enemy. It was the famous Robert de Ufford, Earl of Suffolk, who
had fought without a break from Cadsand onward through the whole
Continental War. The other tall silent soldier, with the silver
star gleaming upon his surcoat, was John de Vere, Earl of Oxford,
and he listened to the talk of Thomas Beauchamp, a burly, jovial,
ruddy nobleman and a tried soldier, who leaned forward and tapped
his mailed hand upon the other's steel-clad thigh. They were old
battle-companions, of the same age and in the very prime of life,
with equal fame and equal experience of the wars. Such was the
group of famous English soldiers who sat their horses behind the
Prince and waited for their orders.
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