[CHAPTER I.]
A Wayfarer
[CHAPTER II.]
The Hut in the Marshes
[CHAPTER III.]
A Thwarted Plot
[CHAPTER IV.]
A Knight's Chain
[CHAPTER V.]
The City Games
[CHAPTER VI.]
The Mêlée
[CHAPTER VII.]
The Young Esquire
[CHAPTER VIII.]
Off to the Wars
[CHAPTER IX.]
The Siege of Hennebon
[CHAPTER X.]
A Place of Refuge
[CHAPTER XI.]
A Stormy Interview
[CHAPTER XII.]
Jacob van Artevelde
[CHAPTER XIII.]
The White Ford
[CHAPTER XIV.]
Cressy
[CHAPTER XV.]
The Siege of a Fortalice
[CHAPTER XVI.]
A Prisoner
[CHAPTER XVII.]
The Capture of Calais
[CHAPTER XVIII.]
The Black Death
[CHAPTER XIX.]
By Land and Sea
[CHAPTER XX.]
Poitiers
[CHAPTER XXI.]
The Jacquerie
[CHAPTER XXII.]
Victory and Death
ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND.
CHAPTER I.
It was a bitterly cold night in the month of November, 1330. The rain was pouring heavily, when a woman, with a child in her arms, entered the little village of Southwark. She had evidently come from a distance, for her dress was travel-stained and muddy. She tottered rather than walked, and when, upon her arrival at the gateway on the southern side of London Bridge, she found that the hour was past and the gates closed for the night, she leaned against the wall with a faint groan of exhaustion and disappointment.
After remaining, as if in doubt, for some time, she feebly made her way into the village. Here were many houses of entertainment, for travelers like herself often arrived too late to enter the gates, and had to abide outside for the night. Moreover, house rent was dear within the walls of the crowded city, and many, whose business brought them to town, found it cheaper to take up their abode in the quiet hostels of Southwark rather than to stay in the more expensive inns within the walls. The lights came out brightly from many of the casements, with sounds of boisterous songs and laughter. The woman passed these without a pause. Presently she stopped before a cottage, from which a feeble light alone showed that it was tenanted.
She knocked at the door. It was opened by a pleasant-faced man of some thirty years old.
"What is it?" he asked.