Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-01-01
THE BoY-HERo OF cREcY.

The English army moved rapidly forward
and northward toward Calais, conquerlng
everything on its way, till, when in the
neighborhood of Crecy, the intelligence
came that the French King, Philip, with
an army of one hundred and twenty thou
sand 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 III dan
gerous spot also; but after time he sue
ceeded i'll getting away to good position,
and there he awaited the onset. No ore
will doubt that he was anxious enough, and
yet what did he do? After arranging his
troops in battle order, three battaions
d eep, 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 a point of duty to keep
outof the battle altogether. Hewas nowhere
to be seen. He went into windmill on a
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
confidence in him, and denying himself all
the glory that might come from a great
and important battle. And the young
fellow was a thousandfold nerved and
strengthened by knowing that his father
fully trusted in him.
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 Bohe-
mia, who with his barons and knights was
not behindhand in the deadly onset and
yet this King was old and blind He
would 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 were
found dead, with their horses tied together
But although the French were brave they
were not wise. For not only had they
brought on the fight with headlong 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. Ed
wards army fought in the shadow. The
terrible English bowmen sent their deadly
cloth yard arrows so thick and fast into the
dazzled and crowded ranks of fifteen thou
sand Genoese archers and the intermingled
men. alarms that the missiles filled 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, 60 is my
son dead or endorsed, or so wounded that
he cannot help himself?"
.'Not So my lord, thank God but he
is fighting against great odds, and is like
to have need of your help"
''Sir Thomas" replied the King, ''re-
turn to them who sent you, and tell them
from me not to send for me, whatever
chance befall them, so long as my son is
alive, and tell them that l 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 vic
tory 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
girls, and glowed under crown of golden
hair. He bore his trophy aloft, and when
it was placed as knightly decoration
above the crest OF his helmet, 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.- Nicho-
las.
APPLE CUsTARD PE.-Scald the milk
and let it cool !; CRATE some sweet apples