“Would to God I lay there in thy stead, noble Du Guesclin! for if England hath gained by thy death, all Christendom hath lost by it. Thou hast done thy work, and gone to thy rest; but thy work shall live after thee, and endure for ever and ever!”
He spoke truly. The work that Bertrand had so well begun was completed by Joan of Arc half a century later; and France’s awakened spirit made good her independence once and for ever.
Nor did her great champion lack his reward. Though his native tower has perished stock and stone, though his domains have passed to strangers, though his very dust was torn from the grave by a senseless mob in the fury of the French Revolution, his name will endure while the world lasts, crowned not only with the fame due to one who gave his life to save his oppressed country from her foes, but with the far higher glory of “the good and gentle knight that cared for the poor.”
“English boys owe a debt of gratitude to Mr. Henty.”—Athenæum.
Blackie & Son’s
Illustrated Story Books
G. A. HENTY