If
you will give me only a hundred men I will attempt it."
"Surely the task is mine, fair sir, since the thought has come
from me," said Chandos.
"Nay, John, I would keep you at my side. But you speak well,
Jean, and you shall do even as you have said. Go ask the Earl of
Oxford for a hundred men-at-arms and as many hobblers, that you
may ride round the mound yonder, and so fall upon them unseen.
Let all that are left of the archers gather on each side, shoot
away their arrows, and then fight as best they may. Wait till
they are past yonder thorn-bush and then, Walter, bear my banner
straight against that of the King of France. Fair sirs, may God
and the thought of your ladies hold high your hearts!"
The French monarch, seeing that his footmen had made no impression
upon the English, and also that the hedge had been well-nigh
leveled to the ground in the course of the combat, so that it no
longer presented an obstacle, had ordered his followers to remount
their horses, and it was as a solid mass of cavalry that the
chivalry of France advanced to their last supreme effort. The
King was in the center of the front line, Geoffrey de Chargny with
the golden oriflamme upon his right, and Eustace de Ribeaumont
with the royal lilies upon the left. At his elbow was the Duke of
Athens, High Constable of France, and round him were the nobles of
the court, fiery and furious, yelling their warcries as they waved
their weapons over their heads.
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