, 1879-12-01
The Boy.Hero OF Creey.

/ COuQuoI1uS every tuAu8 OA AGS way, I'LL,
when in the neighborhood of Crecy,
the intellie ence came that the French
king, Philip, with an army Of one hun
dred and tweueg thousand men and all
the chivalry of France, had come in
between it and the sea. There was no
retreat possible. Edward had but thirty
thousand to oppose this great host.
They were four to one. He was in
dangerous spot, also but after a time
he succeeded in getting away to good
position, and there he awaited the on
set. No one will doubt that he was
anxious enough, and yet what did he
do? After arranging his troops in bat
tie order. three battalions deep, he sent
young Edward, his son, to the very
front with group of his finest barons
to take the brunt of the terrible charge
to come /!
Edward made it point of duty to
keep out of the battle altogether. He
was nowhere to be seen. He went into
windmill on hight near by, and
watched the fight through one of the
narrow windows in its upper story. He
would not even put on his helmet.
That was the way the father stood by
his son-by showing absolute conf
dence in him, and denying himself all
the glory that might come from great
and important battle. And the young
fellow was thousandfold nerved and
strengthened by knowing that his father
fully trusted in him.
need not give the details of the bat
tie. It is sufficient to know that the
| first line of the French chivalry charged
with the utmost fury.
Among these was John, King of Bo-
hemia, who with his barons and knights
was not behindhand in the deadly on
set !; and yet this king was old and
blind He scould have his stroke IN
the battle, and he plunged into it with
his horse tied by its reins to one OF
his knights on either side. A plume
of three ostrich feathers waved from
his helmet, and the chroniclers say he =
laid about him we'll. After the battle,
he and his two companions we're found
dead, with their horses tied together.
But although the French were brave,
they were not wise. For not only he'd
they brought on the fight with head
long energy before they were prepared,
but they had allowed Edward to place
himself so that the afternoon sun, then
near its setting, blazed full in their
eyes and faces. Edwards army fought
in the shadow. The terrible English
bowmen sent their cloth yard arrows so
thick and fast into the dazzled and
crowded ranks of fifteen thousand Gen
oese archers and the intermingled
men-at-arms, that the missiles filed the
air like snow. The Genoese were
thrown into confusion, and this spread
throughout the whole French army.
The French king, with some of his
dukes, flew foaming over the field.
trying in vain to get up in time to
swell the onset upon the English front.
But the onset had proved hard enough
as it was. The knights around the
young prince were frightened for his
safety. One of them, Sir Thomas of
Norwich, was sent back to Edward to
ask him to come to the assistance of the
prince.
"Sir Thomas" said the king, lis
my son dead or unhorsed. or so wound
ed that he cannot help himself ?"
"Not so, my lord, thank God but
he is fighting against great odds, and
and is like to have need of your help"
"Sir Thomas" replied the king,
IoUuI W LAC6A WdO SCAU yOuS d0O
tell them from me not to send for me,
whatever chance befall them, so long as
my son is alive, and tell them that I
bid them let the lad win his spurs; for
wish, if God so desire, that the day
should be his, and the honor thereof
remain to him and to those to whom
have given him in charge"
And there he stayed in the windmill
till the battle was over. Soon the cry
of victory reached him as the French
fed in the darkness, leaving their dead
strewn upon the field. Now the young
prince appeared covered with all the
glory that his father had coveted for
him, bearing the ostrich plume which
he had taken from the dead king of
Bohemia. The boy rode up with his
visor raised,-his face was as fair as a
girls, and glowed under a crown of
golden hair. He bore his trophy aloft,
and when it was placed as knightly
decoration above the crest of his he'll
met, he little thought that the triple
tuft was to wave for more than five
hundred years, even to this day, on
England's front, for such it does, and
that, next to the crown, there shall be
no badge so proudly known as the three
feathers which nod above the coronet of
the Prince of Wales. Albert Edward,
son of Queen Victoria, now wears it
because Edward, the Prince of Wales,
when still in his teens, won it at Crecy.
-TREADwE11 WALDEN, in st. Nicholas.
On High street, boy of ten, richly
dressed, sat on the steps eating an or
ange, and boy with cart-load of
picked-up wood stood across the street
looking at him. The contrast was very
great, and pedestrian who saw the
situation said to the poor boy:
"That chap over there is pretty well