They had even better cause to think so ere the day ended, for Edward’s chivalrous courtesy to his captives was one of the few bright spots in that dark and cruel age. They were bountifully supplied with food, which they sorely needed after that night’s terrific struggle, and the long and hungry march that preceded it. Their wounds were dressed by the king’s surgeons, and the more severely hurt removed to his own quarters, where they were kindly cared for and furnished with all they needed; and one and all, by Edward’s special order, were provided with new clothes in place of their battered armour.
Having attended the public thanksgiving in the great church of the town, the king summoned to his presence in the castle hall a number of young English esquires who had done bravely in the fight, and knighted them with his own hand. Among these were, to their great joy and pride, the Claremont twins, who had surpassed themselves that night, and made prisoner a Flemish captain of note.
“Royal father,” said the Black Prince, bowing gracefully, “I pray your courtesy to give me leave to attach these two young knights to my train, where they will doubtless acquit them as good men and true.”
Edward cordially assented, and the prince, turning to the new-made knights with that frank and manly courtesy to which, even more than to his splendid feats of arms, he owed his universal popularity, said pleasantly—
“Fair sirs, ye may have heard that I am a master who never leaveth good workmen idle; and such do I hold ye to be. I pray you, then, to hie down to the shore with such men-at-arms as ye have, and keep heedful watch and ward all this day, lest the corsairs who haunt the narrow seas should avail them of the confusion that ever followeth a battle, and land in their boats to rob and kill.”
Away went the brothers and their train, rejoicing alike in being so soon entrusted with that important mission by the prince himself, and at the great warrior’s kindly courtesy; but, not wishing to lose sight of their Flemish prisoner—the Flemings of that age being proverbially a very slippery set—they were fain to take him with them.
That night, by King Edward’s special command, his French captives were bidden to a costly banquet in the great castle hall, and those who waited on them at table were the best knights of England and the Black Prince himself.
The meal over, into the hall came Edward III. himself, clad in rich cloth-of-gold, but with nothing on his head save a twisted chaplet of pearls.
Up the hall he came, with slow and stately step, halting at last by De Chargny, who was still chafing fiercely at the treachery that had so unexpectedly foiled his enterprise, and brought defeat and captivity on himself. The king fixed on him a look before which even the haughty noble’s bold eyes sank abashed.
“Sir Geoffrey de Chargny,” said Edward, in a tone of stern rebuke, “I have little cause to love you, who have thought to filch from me, in a time of truce, the town that I won with such labour and at such cost. Right glad am I that I have thus caught you in the fact. You thought to gain the town cheaper than I did, by payment of a bare twenty thousand crowns; but I thank God that He has enabled me to foil you.”