Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1879-11-17
eylcMth's Column.
THE BoY-HERo OLE cREcY.

quering everything on its way. till, when
in the neighborhood Of Crecy, the intel
ligence came that the French king.
Phillip. with an army of one hundred
and twenty 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 thou
sand to oppose this great host. They
were four to one He was in danger
Gus spot also but after time he sue
ceeded in getting away to good position,
and there he awaited the onset. No one
| will doubt that he was anxious enough,
and yet what did he do? After arrang-
ing his troops in battle order, three bat
talions deep, he sent young Edward his
son to the very front with a group of
his finest barons to take the brunt of the
terrible charge to come
Edward made it a point of duty to
keep out of the battle altogether. He
was nowhere to be seen. He went into
a windmill on height 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 confidence in him,
and danvino hinneAlf oil tho "lo-r +hnt
might come from great and important
battle And the young fellow was a
thousandfold nerved and strengthened
by knowing that his father fully trusted
in him.
l need not give the details of the
battle. 1t is sufficient to know that the
first line of the French chivalry charged
with the utmost fury.
Among these was John, king of b.
, hemia, who with his barons and knights
: was not behindhand in the deadly onset ;
|, and yet this king was old and blind
He aOoatld have his stroke in the battle,
and he plunged into it with his horse
| tied by its reins to one of his nights
, 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 CON-
3 panions were found dead, with their
horses tied together.
, But although the French were brave
! they were not wise. For not only had
p they brought on the fight with headlong
e energy before they were prepared; but
}. they had allowed Edward to place him
o self so that the afternoon sun, then neal
IS setting, blazed full in their eyes and
n faces. Edwards army fought in the
), shadow. The terrible English bowmer
s sent their deadly cloth-yard arrows ST
s. thick and fast into the dazzled an(
crowded ranks of fifteen thousand Gen
oese archers and the intermirgled men
alarms, that the missiles filled the al
IL like snow. The Genoese were throw
j. into confusion, and this spread through
d out the whole French army. The FrencI
"a king. with some of his dukes, few foam
"a ing over the field, trying in vain to ge
is up in time to swell the onset upon tn
If English front
to But the onset had proved hard enoug
OF as it was. The knights around tn
young prince were frightened for hi
ID safety. One of them, Sir Thomas q
m Norwich, was sent back to Edward t
in ask him to come to the assistance of th
|; prince.
ut "Sir Thomas" said the king, sis m
Ill son dead or endorsed. or so wounde
If, that he cannot help himself?"
Mt "Not so, my lord, thank God but b
en- is fighting against great odds, and
y, like to have need of your help"
mt "Sir Thomas" replied the king, ''r,
turn to them who sent you, and te
nd them from me not to send for me, wha
% ever chance befall them, so long as m
Of son is alive, and tell them that l bi
100 them let the lad win his spurs; for
n wish, if God SO desire, that the da
a.. should be his, and the honor there
q remain to him and to those to whom
,rs have given him in charge"
itb And there he stayed in the windmi
ID till the battle was over. Soon the CT
an of victory reached him as the Frent
fed in the darkness, leaving their de;
strewn upon the field. Now the your
- prince appeared covered with all Il
glory that his father had coveted
=. him, bearing the ostrich plume viii
he had taken from the dead king
al Bohemia. The boy rode up with /
=, visor raised,-his face was as fair as
- girls, and glowed under crown
:. golden hair. He bore his trophy alo
az and when it was placed as knight
decoration above the crest of his helm
he little thought that the triple tuft "
to wave for more than FIVE hundr
Mn years, even to this day, on Englant
''il front, for such 1T does, and that, next
the crown, there shall be no badge
i'eS proudly known as the three feath
I'LL which nod above the coronet of I
d Prince of Wales. Albert Edward,
one of Queen Victoria, now wears it becal