Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1883-07-18

One instance of promlscuOus slaugh-
ter is remarkable for the high esteem
to which it sometimes raised its chief
perpetrator. In the famous war be-
tween the citizens of Ghent and the
Earl of Flanders there was no worse
episode than when the Lord of dan
ghien took the town of Grammont by
storm one fine Sunday in June, and
showed no mercy to man, woman or
child. Numbers of old people and
women were burned in their beds, and
the town, being set on fire in more than
two hundred places, was reduced to
ashes, even the churches included.
Fair son." the Earl of Flanders said,
greeting his returning relative, ''you
are a valiant warrior, and, if it pleaSes
God, will be a gallant one; you have
made handsome beginning" History
cannot but rejoice that the Young
dukes first feat of arms was also his
last, and that, not many days after
Tard, he lost his life in a skirmish. OF
course all persons found within town
taken by assault were by the rule of
war liable to be killed. Only by a
timely surrender could the besieged
cherish any hope for their lives or fort
uneS; and even the offer of surrender
might be refused, and an unconditional
submission be insisted on instead. |
There is no darker blot on the charac-
ter of Edward III. than the savage
disposition he showed when, with re-
spect to the brave defenders of Calais, |
he was only restrained from exercising |
his strict war right of putting them to /
death by the representations made to
him of the danger he might incur of
sanguinary retaliation III the future.
There was in general strong feeling
against making ladies prisoners of war;
nor could the French ever forgive the
English for allowing the soldiers of the
Black Prince to take prisoner the
Duchess of Bourbon, mother of the
king, and to obtain ransom for her
release. To the French appears to have
been due whatever advance was made
in the more humane treatment of pris-
oners. The SpaniardS and Germans
were wont to fasten tLeir prisoners
with iron chains; but of the French,
Froissart says: ''They neither imprison
their captors nor put fetters on them.
as the Germans do, i'll order to obtain
a better ransom. The Germans are
without pity or honor, and ought never
to receive any quarter. The French,
all their prisoners well and
them cOurteOusly, without
being too hard on them" In this
spirit Bertrand du Guesclin let his
English prisoners go at large on their
parole for their ransom, a generosity |,
toward their foes which the English
on no occasion knew how to requite.
FrOissart gives one very striking Illus
tration of the greater barbarity of the
Spaniards towards their prisoners,
which should not be forgotten in EN-
deavoring to form a general estimate
Of the character of the military type of
life in the palmiest days of chivalry.
] "a war between CASTLE and Portugal,
whenever the barbarous Castilians took
any prisoners, they tore out their eyes,
tore of their arms and legs, and in such
4 plight sent them back to Lisbon. 1t
speaks highly for the conduct of the
Lisboners that they did not retaliate
such treatment, but allowed their pris-
,ners every comfort they could expect
II their circumstances