No More Learning

ment in Herr Gruner's Model School, and it was found at once that
he was what the Germans love to call "a teacher by the grace of
God. " The first time he met his class of boys he tells us that he
felt inexpressibly happy; the hazel wand had found the waters and
was fixed at last. From this time on, all the events of his life were
connected with his experience as a teacher. Impelled as soon as he
had begun his work by a desire for more effective methods, he visited
Yverdon, then the centre of educational thought, and studied with
Pestalozzi. He went again in 1808, accompanied by three pupils, and
spent two years there, alternately studying and teaching.
There was a year of lectures at Göttingen after this, and one at
the University of Berlin, accompanied by unceasing study and re-
search both in literary and scientific lines; but in the fateful year
1813 this quiet student life was broken in upon, for impelled by
strong moral conviction, Froebel joined Baron von Lützow's famous
volunteer corps, formed to harass the French by constant skirmishes
and to encourage the smaller German States to rise against Napo-
leon.


## p. 6024 (#618) ###########################################

6024
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
No thirst for glory prompted this action, but a lofty conception of
the office of the educator. How could any young man capable of
bearing arms, Froebel says, become a teacher of children whose
Fatherland he had refused to defend? how could he in after years
incite his pupils to do something noble, something calling for sacri-
fice and unselfishness, without exposing himself to their derision and
contempt? The reasoning was perfect, and he made practice follow
upon the heels of theory as closely as he had always done since he
became master of his fate.
After the Peace of Paris he settled down for a time to a quiet
life in the mineralogical museum at the University of Berlin, his
duties being the care, arrangement, and investigation of crystals.
Surrounded thus by the exquisite formations whose development ac-
cording to law is so perfect, whose obedience to the promptings of an
inward ideal so complete, he could not but learn from their uncon-
scious ethics to look into the depths of his own nature, and there
recognize more clearly the purpose it was intended to work out.
In 1816 he quietly gave up his position, and taking as pupils five
of his nephews, three of whom were fatherless, he entered upon his
life work, the first step in which was the carrying out of his plan
for a "Universal German Educational Institute. " He was without
money, of course, as he had always been and always would be,— his
hands wer
ere made for giving, not for getting; he slept in a barn on
a wisp of straw while arranging for his first school at Griesheim; but
outward things were so little real to him in comparison with the life
of the spirit, that bodily privations seemed scarcely worth consider-
ing. The school at Keilhau, to which he soon removed, the institu-
tions later established in Wartensee and Willisau, the orphanage in
Burgdorf, all were most successful educationally, but, it is hardly
necessary to say, were never a source of profit to their head and
founder.
Through the twenty succeeding years, busy as he was in teaching,
in lecturing, in writing, he was constantly shadowed by dissatisfac-
tion with the foundation upon which he was building. A nebulous
idea for the betterment of things was floating before him; but it was
not until 1836 that it appeared to his eyes as a "definite truth. "
This definite truth, the discovery of his old age, was of course the
kindergarten; and from this time until the end, all other work was
laid aside, and his entire strength given to the consummate flower
of his educational thought.
The first kindergarten was opened in 1837 at Blankenburg (where
a memorial school is now conducted), and in 1850 the institution at
Marienthal for the training of kindergartners was founded, Froebel
remaining at its head until his death two years after.


## p. 6025 (#619) ###########################################

FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
6025
With the exception of that remarkable book The Education of
Man' (1826), his most important literary work was done after 1836;
'Pedagogics of the Kindergarten,' the first great European contribu-
tion to the subject of child-study, appearing from 1837 to 1840 in the
form of separate essays, and the 'Mutter-und-Kose Lieder' (Mother-
Play) in 1843. Many of his educational aphorisms and occasional
speeches were preserved by his great disciple the Baroness von
Marenholtz-Bülow in her 'Reminiscences of Froebel'; and though
two most interesting volumes of his correspondence have been pub-
lished, there remain a number of letters, as well as essays and educa-
tional sketches, not yet rendered into English.
Froebel's literary style is often stiff and involved, its phrases
somewhat labored, and its substance exceedingly difficult to trans-
late with spirit and fidelity; yet after all, his mannerisms are of a
kind to which one easily becomes accustomed, and the kernel of his
thought when reached is found well worth the trouble of removing a
layer of husk. He had always an infinitude of things to say, and
they were all things of purpose and of meaning; but in writing, as
well as in formal speaking, the language to clothe the thought came
to him slowly and with difficulty. Yet it appears that in friendly
private intercourse he spoke fluently, and one of his students reports
that in his classes he was often "overpowering and sublime, the
stream of his words pouring forth like fiery rain. "
It is probable that in daily life Froebel was not always an agree-
able house-mate; for he was a genius, a reformer, and an unworldly
enthusiast, believing in himself and in his mission with all the ardor
of a heart centred in one fixed purpose. He was quite intolerant of
those who doubted or disbelieved in his theories, as well as of those
who, believing, did not carry their faith into w ks. The people who
stood nearest him and devoted themselves to the furthering of his
ideas slept on no bed of roses, certainly; but although he sometimes
sacrificed their private interests to his cause, it must not be forgotten
that he first laid himself and all that he had upon the same altar.
His nature was one that naturally inspired reverence and loyalty, and
drew from his associates the most extraordinary devotion and self-
sacrifice. Then, as now, women were peculiarly attracted by his
burning enthusiasm, his prophetic utterances, and his lofty views of
their sex and its mission; and then, as now, the almost fanatical zeal
of his followers is perhaps to be explained by the fact that he gives
a new world-view to his students,- one that produces much the same
effect upon the character as the spiritual exaltation called "experi-
encing religion. "
He was twice married, in each case to a superior woman of great
gifts of mind and character, and both helpmates joyfully took up a


## p. 6026 (#620) ###########################################

6026
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
life of privation and care that they might be associated with him and
with his work. Those memorable words spoken of our Washington, —
"Heaven left him childless that a nation might call him father," are
even more applicable to Froebel, for his wise and tender fatherhood
extends to all the children of the world. When he passed through
the village streets of his own country, little ones came running from
every doorstep; the babies clinging to his knees and the older ones
hanging about his neck and refusing to leave the dear play-master,
as they called him. So the kindergartners love to think of him
to-day, the tall spare figure, the long hair, the wise, plain, strong-
featured face, the shining eyes, and the little ones clustering about
him as they clustered about another Teacher in Galilee, centuries ago.
Froebel's educational creed cannot here be cited at length, but
some of its fundamental articles are:-
-
The education of the child should begin with its birth, and should
be threefold, addressing the mental, spiritual, and physical natures.
It should be continued as it has begun, by appealing to the heart
and the emotions as the starting-point of the human soul.
There should be sequence, orderly progression, and one continuous
purpose throughout the entire scheme of education, from kinder-
garten to university.
Education should be conducted according to nature, and should be
a free, spontaneous growth,-a development from within, never a pre-
scription from without.
The training of the child should be conducted by means of the
activities, needs, desires, and delights, which are the common herit-
age of childhood.
The child should be led from the beginning to feel that one life
thrills through every manifestation of the universe, and that he is a
part of all that is.
The object of education is the development of the human being
in the totality of his powers as a child of nature, a child of man, and
a child of God.
These principles of Froebel's, many of them the products of his
own mind, others the pure gold of educational currency upon which
he has but stamped his own image, are so true and so far-reaching
that they have already begun to modify all education and are des-
tined to work greater magic in the future. The great teacher's place
in history may be determined, by-and-by, more by the wonderful
uplift and impetus he gave to the whole educational world, than by
the particular system of child-culture in connection with which he is
best known to-day.
Judged by ordinary worldly standards, his life was an unsuccess-
ful one, full of trials and privations, and empty of reward.
His


## p. 6027 (#621) ###########################################

FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
6027
aro
death-blow was doubtless struck by the prohibition of kindergartens
in Prussia in 1851, an edict which remained nine years in force. His
strength had been too sorely tried to resist this final crushing mis-
fortune, and he passed away the following year. His body was borne
to the grave through a heavy storm of wind and rain that seemed to
symbolize the vicissitudes of his earthly days, while as a forecast of
the future the sun shone out at the last moment, and the train of
mourners looked back to see the low mound irradiated with glory.
In Thuringia, where the great child-lover was born, the kinder-
gartens, his best memorials, cluster thickly now; and on the face of
the cliffs that overhang the bridle-path across the Glockner mount-
ain may be seen in great letters the single word Froebel, hewn deep
into the solid rock.
个
​Archibald Smitte
THE RIGHT OF THE CHILD
From Reminiscences of Friedrich Froebel,' by Baroness B. von Marenholtz-
Bülow. Copyright 1877, by Mary Mann. Reprinted by permission of
Lee & Shepard, publishers, Boston.
Α'
LL that does not grow out of one's inner being, all that is
not one's own original feeling and thought, or that at least
does not awaken that, oppresses and defaces the individual-
ity of man instead of calling it forth, and nature becomes there-
by a caricature. Shall we never cease to stamp human nature,
even in childhood, like coins? to overlay it with foreign images
and foreign superscriptions, instead of letting it develop itself
and grow into form according to the law of life planted in it by
God the Father, so that it may be able to bear the stamp of the
Divine, and become an image of God?
This theory of love is to serve as the highest goal and pole-
star of human education, and must be attended to in the germ
of humanity, the child, and truly in his very first impulses. The
conquest of self-seeking egoism is the most important task of
education; for selfishness isolates the individual from all commun-
ion, and kills the life-giving principle of love. Therefore the first
object of education is to teach to love, to break up the egoism


## p. 6028 (#622) ###########################################

6028
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
of the individual, and to lead him from the first stage of com-
munion in the family through all the following stages of social
life to the love of humanity, or to the highest self-conquest by
which man rises to Divine unity.
•
Women are to recognize that childhood and womanliness
(the care of childhood and the life of women) are inseparably
connected; that they form a unit; and that God and nature
have placed the protection of the human plant in their hands.
Hitherto the female sex could take only a more or less passive
part in human history, because great battles and the political
organization of nations were not suited to their powers. But at
the present stage of culture, nothing is more pressingly required
than the cultivation of every human power for the arts of peace
and the work of higher civilization. The culture of individuals,
and therefore of the whole nation, depends in great part upon
the earliest care of childhood. On that account women, as one
half of mankind, have to undertake the most important part of
the problems of the time, problems that men are not able to
solve. If but one half of the work be accomplished, then our
epoch, like all others, will fail to reach the appointed goal. As
educators of mankind, the women of the present time have the
highest duty to perform, while hitherto they have been scarcely
more than the beloved mothers of human beings.
But I will protect childhood, that it may not as in earlier
generations be pinioned, as in a strait-jacket, in garments of cus-
tom and ancient prescription that have become too narrow for
the new time. I shall show the way and shape the means, that
every human soul may grow of itself, out of its own individuality.
But where shall I find allies and helpers if not in women, who
as mothers and teachers may put my idea in execution? Only
intellectually active women can and will do it. But if these are
to be loaded with the ballast of dead knowledge that can take
no root in the unprepared ground, if the fountains of their own
original life are to be choked up with it, they will not follow my
direction nor understand the call of the time for the new task
of their sex, but will seek satisfaction in empty superficiality.
To learn to comprehend nature in the child,- is not that to
comprehend one's own nature and the nature of mankind? And
in this comprehension is there not involved a certain degree
of comprehension of all things else? Women cannot learn and
take into themselves anything higher and more comprehensive.


## p. 6029 (#623) ###########################################

FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
6029
It should therefore at least be the beginning, and the love of
childhood should be awakened in the mind (and in a wider sense,
this is the love of humanity), so that a new, free generation of
men can grow up by right care.
EVOLUTION
From The Mottoes and Commentaries of Mother-Play. Copyright 1895, by
D. Appleton & Co.
WHAT
HAT shall we learn from our yearning look into the heart
of the flower and the eye of the child? This truth:
Whatever develops, be it into flower or tree or man, is
from the beginning implicitly that which it has the power to
become. The possibility of perfect manhood is what you read in
your child's eye, just as the perfect flower is prophesied in the
bud, or the giant oak in the tiny acorn. A presentiment that the
ideal or generic human being slumbers, dreams, stirs in your
unconscious infant-this it is, O mother, which transfigures you
as you gaze upon him. Strive to define to yourself what is that
generic ideal which is wrapped up in your child. Surely, as your
child—or in other words, as child of man — he destined to live
in the past and future as well as in the present. His earthly
being implies a past heaven; his birth makes a present heaven;
in his soul he holds a future heaven. This threefold heaven,
which you also bear within you, shines out on you through your
child's eyes.
The beast lives only in the present. Of past and future he
knows naught. But to man belong not only the present, but also
the future and the past. His thought pierces the heaven of the
future, and hope is born. He learns that all human life is one
life; that all human joys and sorrows are his joys and sorrows,
and through participation enters the present heaven- the heaven.
of love. He turns his mind towards the past, and out of retro-
spection wrests a vigorous faith. What soul could fail to conquer
an invincible trust in the pure, the good, the holy, the ideally
human, the truly Divine, if it would look with single eye into
its own past, into the past of history? Could there be a man in
whose soul such a contemplation of the. past would fail to blossom
into devout insight, into self-conscious and self-comprehending
faith? Must not such a retrospect unveil the truth? Must not


## p. 6030 (#624) ###########################################

6030
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
the beauty of the unveiled truth allure him to Divine doing,
Divine living? All that is high and holy in human life meets
in that faith which is born of the unveiling of a heaven that has
always been; in that hope born of a vision of the heaven that
shall be; in that love which creates a heaven in the eternal Now.
These three heavens shine out upon you through your child's eye.
The presentiment that he carries these three heavens within him.
transfigures your countenance as you gaze upon him. Cherish
this premonition, for thereby you will help him to make his life a
musical chord wherein are blended the three notes of faith, hope,
and love. These celestial virtues will link his life with the
Divine life through which all life is one-with the God who is
the supernal fountain of life, light, and love.
Higher and more important than the cultivation of man's
outer ear, is the culture of that inner sense of harmony whereby
the soul learns to perceive sweet accord in soundless things, and
to discern within itself harmonies and discords. The importance
of wakening the inner ear to this music of the soul can scarcely
be exaggerated. Learning to hear it within, the child will strive
to give it outer form and expression; and even if in such effort
he is only partially successful, he will gain thereby the power to
appreciate the more successful effort of others. Thus enriching
his own life by the life of others, he solves the problem of devel-
opment. How else were it possible within the quickly fleeting
hours of mortal life to develop our being in all directions, to
fathom its depths, scale its heights, measure its boundaries?
What we are, what we would be, we must learn to recognize in
the mirror of all other lives. By the effort of each, and the
recognition of all, the Divine man is revealed in humanity.
Against the bright light which shines on the smooth white
wall is thrust a dark object, and straightway appears the form
which so delights the child. This is the outward fact; what is
the truth which through this fact is dimly hinted to the prophetic
mind? Is it not the creative and transforming power of light,
that power which brings form and color out of chaos, and makes
the beauty which gladdens our hearts? Is it not more than this,
-a foreshadowing, perhaps, of the spiritual fact that our darkest
experiences may project themselves in forms that will delight and
bless, if in our hearts shines the light of God? The sternest
crags, the most forbidding chasms, are beautiful in the mellow
sunshine; while the fairest landscape loses all charm, and indeed


## p. 6031 (#625) ###########################################

FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
6031
ceases to be, when the light which created it is withdrawn. Is
it not thus also with our lives? Yesterday, touched by the light
of enthusiastic emotion, all our relationships seemed beautiful
and blessed; to-day, when the glow of enthusiasm has faded, they
oppress and repulse us. Only the conviction that it is the dark-
ness within us which makes the darkness without, can restore the
lost peace of our souls. Be it therefore, O mother, your sacred
duty to make your darling early feel the working both of the
outer and inner light. Let him see in one the symbol of the
other, and tracing light and color to their source in the sun, may
he learn to trace the beauty and meaning of his life to their
source in God.
Translation of Susan E. Blow.
THE LAWS OF THE MIND
From The Letters of Froebel'
I
AM firmly convinced that all the phenomena of the child-world,
those which delight us as well as those which grieve us,
depend upon fixed laws as definite as those of the cosmos,
the planetary system, and the operations of nature; and it is
therefore possible to discover them and examine them. When
once we know and have assimilated these laws, we shall be able
powerfully to counteract any retrograde and faulty tendencies in
the children, and to encourage, at the same time, all that is
good and virtuous.
FOR THE CHILDREN
From The Letters of Froebel'
I
WISH you could have been here this evening, and seen the many
beautiful and varied forms and lovely patterns which freely
and spontaneously developed themselves from some system-
atic variations of a simple ground form, in stick-playing. No
one would believe, without seeing it, how the child soul, the
child life, develops when treated as a whole, and in the sense of
forming a part of the great connected life of the world, by some
skilled kindergarten teacher-nay, even by one who is only
simple-hearted, thoughtful, and attentive; nor how it blooms into


## p. 6032 (#626) ###########################################

6032
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
delicious harmonies like a beautifully tinted flower. Oh, if I
could only shout aloud with ten thousand lung-power the truth
that I now tell you in silence! Then would I make the ears of
a hundred thousand men ring with it! What keenness of sensa-
tion, what a soul, what a mind, what force of will and active
energy, what dexterity and skill of muscular movement and of
perception, and what calm and patience, will not all these things
call out in the children!
How is it that parents are so blind and deaf, when they pro-
fess to be so eager to work for the welfare, the health, and peace
of their children? No! I cannot understand it; and yet a whole
generation has passed since this system first delivered its mes-
sage, first called for educational amendment, first pointed out
where the need for it lay, and showed how it could be satisfied.
If I were not afraid of being taken for an idiot or an escaped
lunatic, I would run barefoot from one end of Germany to the
other and cry aloud to all men: — "Set to work at once for your
children's sake on some universally developing plan, aiming at
unity of life purpose, and through that at joy and peace. " But
what good would it do? A Curtman and a Ramsauer, in their
stupidity or maliciousness, make it their duty to stigmatize my
work as sinful, when I am but quietly corresponding with just
my own friends and sympathizers; for they say I am destroying
all pleasure in life for the parents: "Who could be so silly as I,
amongst sane men who acknowledge that parents have a right
to enjoy life,—I who perpetually call to these parents in tones
of imperative demand, Come, let us live for our children! >»
(Kommt, laszt uns unseren Kindern leben! )
MOTIVES
From The Education of Man. By permission of Josephine Jarvis,
the translator, and A. Lovell & Co. , publishers
Ο
NLY in the measure that we are thoroughly penetrated by
the pure, spiritual, inward, human relations, and are faith-
ful to them even in the smallest detail in life, do we attain
to the complete knowledge and perception of the Divine-human
relation; only in that measure do we anticipate them so deeply,
vividly, and truly, that every yearning of our whole being is
thereby satisfied, at least receives its whole meaning, and is
-


## p. 6033 (#627) ###########################################

FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
6033
changed from a constantly unfulfilled yearning to an immediately
rewarded effort.
How we degrade and lower the human nature which we should
raise, how we weaken those whom we should strengthen, when
we hold up to them an inducement to act virtuously, even though
we place this inducement in another world! If we employ an
outward incentive, though it be the most spiritual, to call forth
better life, and leave undeveloped the inner, spontaneous, and
independent power of representing pure humanity which rests in
each man, we degrade our human nature.
But how wholly different every thing is, if man, especially in
boyhood, is made to observe the reflex action of his conduct, not
on his outward more or less agreeable position, but on his inner,
spontaneous or fettered, clear or clouded, satisfied or dissatisfied.
condition of spirit and mind! The experiences which proceed
from this observation will necessarily more and more awaken the
inner sense of man: and then true sense, the greatest treasure of
boy and man, comes into his life.
APHORISMS
SEE in every child the possibility of a perfect man.
I
The child-soul is an ever-bubbling fountain in the world of
humanity.
The plays of childhood are the heart-leaves of the whole
future life.
Childish unconsciousness is rest in God.
From each object of nature and of life, there goes a path
toward God.
Perfect human joy is also worship, for it is ordered by God.
The first groundwork of religious life is love-love to God
and man-in the bosom of the family.
Childhood is the most important stage of the total develop-
ment of man and of humanity.
Women must make of their educational calling a priestly
office.
Isolation and exclusion destroy life; union and participation
create life.
Without religious preparation in childhood, no true religion
and no union with God is possible for men.
X-378


## p. 6034 (#628) ###########################################

6034
FRIEDRICH FROEBEL
The tree germ bears within itself the nature of the whole
tree; the human being bears in himself the nature of all human-
ity; and is not therefore humanity born anew in each child?
In the children lies the seed-corn of the future.
The lovingly cared for, and thereby steadily and strongly
developed human life, also the cloudless child life, is of itself a
Christ-like one.
In all things works one creative life, because the life of all
things proceeds from one God.
Let us live with our children: so shall their lives bring peace
and joy to us; so shall we begin to be and to become wise.
What boys and girls play in earliest childhood will become
by-and-by a beautiful reality of serious life; for they expand
into stronger and lovelier youthfulness by seeking on every side
appropriate objects to verify the thoughts of their inmost souls.
This earliest age is the most important one for education, be-
cause the beginning decides the manner of progress and the end.
If national order is to be recognized in later years as a benefit,
childhood must first be accustomed to law and order, and therein
find the means of freedom. Lawlessness and caprice must rule
in no period of life, not even in that of the nursling.
The kindergarten is the free republic of childhood.
A deep feeling of the universal brotherhood of man,- what is
it but a true sense of our close filial union with God?
Man must be able to fail, in order to be good and virtuous;
and he must be able to become a slave in order to be truly
free.
My teachers are the children themselves, with all their purity,
their innocence, their unconsciousness, and their irresistible
claims; and I follow them like a faithful, trustful scholar.
A story told at the right time is like a looking-glass for the
mind.
I wish to cultivate men who stand rooted in nature, with
their feet in God's earth, whose heads reach toward and look
into the heavens; whose hearts unite the richly formed life of
earth and nature, with the purity and peace of heaven,-God's
earth and God's heaven.


## p. 6035 (#629) ###########################################

0035
FROISSART
(1337-1410? )
BY GEORGE M'LEAN HARPER
ROISSART is the artist of chivalry. On his pages are painted,
with immortal brilliancy, the splendid shows, the corona-
tions, weddings, tourneys, marches, feasts, and battles of
the English and French knighthood just before the close of the Mid-
dle Ages. "I intend," he says in the Prologue of his chronicle, "to
treat and record history and matter of great praise, to the end that
the honorable emprises and noble adventures and deeds of arms,
which have come about from the wars of France and England, may
be notably enregistered and placed in per-
petual memory, whereby chevaliers may
take example to encourage them in well-
doing. "

Chivalry, in the popular understanding,
is the fine flower of feudalism, its bloom
of poetic and heroic life. But in reality it
was artificial, having grown from an exag-
gerated respect for certain human qualities,
at the expense of others fully as essential
and indeed no less beautiful. Courage is
good; but it is not rare, and the love of
fighting for fighting's sake is made possible
only by disregarding large areas of life to
which war brings no harvest of happiness,
and over which it does not even cast the glamor of romance. The
works of civilized communities-agriculture, industry, commerce, art,
learning, religion - were nearly at a standstill in the middle of the
fourteenth century, when Europe was turned into a playground for
steel-clad barbarians.
FROISSART
This perversion of nature could not last. The wretched Hundred
Years' War had run but half its course when the misery and disgust
among the real people, who thought and wrought, drove them to such
despairing efforts as the Jacquerie in France and Wat Tyler's Rebel-
lion in England. It was the English archers, as Froissart reluctantly


## p. 6036 (#630) ###########################################

6036
FROISSART
admits, and not the knights, who won the battle of Poitiers. Gun-
powder and cannon, a few years later, doomed the man-at-arms, and
the rise of strong monarchies crowded out the feudal system. The
thunder of artillery which echoes faintly in the last pages of Frois-
sart is like a parting salvo to all the pageantry the volume holds.
From cannon-ball and musket-shot the glittering procession has found
refuge there. Into the safe retreat of these illuminated parchments,
all the banners and pennons, lances, crests, and tapestries, knights
and horses under clanking mail, had time—and but just time-to
withdraw. We find them there, fresh as when they hurried in, the
colors bright, the trumpets blowing.
Jean Froissart was born at Valenciennes in Hainault, in 1337, the
year of his birth almost coinciding with Chaucer's.
He tells us in his
long autobiographical poem, 'L'Espinette Amoureuse,' that he was
fond of play when a boy, and delighted in dances, carols, and poems,
and had a liking for all those who loved dogs and birds. In the
school where he was sent, he says, there were little girls whom he
tried to please by giving them rings of glass, and pins, and apples,
and pears.
It seemed to him a most worthy thing to acquire their
favor, and he wondered when it would be his turn to fall really in
love. Much of this poem, which narrates tediously the love affair
that was not long in coming, is probably fictitious; but there is no
doubt of the accuracy of his description of himself in the opening
lines, as fond of pleasure, prone to gallantry, and susceptible to all
the bright faces of romance. From love and arms, he says, we are
often told that all joy and every honor flow. He informs us else-
where that he was no sooner out of school than he began to write,
putting into verse the wars of his time.
In 1361 he went to England, where Edward III. was reigning with
Philippa his queen, a daughter of the Count of Hainault.
His pass-
port to the favor of his great countrywoman was a book, the result
of these rhymings, covering the period from the battle of Poitiers,
1356, to the time of his voyage. This volume is not known to exist,
nor any copy of it. The Queen made him a clerk of her chamber.
He had abundant opportunity in England to gratify his curiosity and
fill his note-book, for the court was full of French noblemen, lately
come over as hostages for King Jean of France, who was captured at
the battle of Poitiers.
In 1365 he took letters of recommendation from the Queen to
David Bruce, King of Scotland, whom he followed for three months
in his progress through that realm; spending a fortnight at the castle
of William Douglas and making everywhere diligent inquiry about the
recent war of 1345. In his delightful little poem The Debate be-
tween the Horse and the Greyhound,' beginning, "Froissart from


## p. 6037 (#631) ###########################################

FROISSART
6037
Scotland was returning," we have a lifelike figure of the inquisitive
young chronicler, pushing unweariedly from inn to inn on a tired
horse and leading a footsore dog.
In
Between his thirtieth and his thirty-fourth year he was sometimes
in England and sometimes in various parts of the Continent.
August 1369, while he was abroad, his patroness Queen Philippa
died. She had encouraged him to continue his researches and writ-
ings, and he had presented her with a second volume, in prose, which
has come down to us as a part of the chronicle. He admits that his
work was an expansion of the chronicle of Jean le Bel, Canon of
Saint Lambert at Liège, for he says:- "As all great rivers are made
by the gathering together of many streams and springs, so the sciences
also are extracted and compiled by many clerks: what one knows, the
other does not. "
On hearing of the Queen's death, Froissart settled in his own coun-
try of Hainault. There he won favor from princes, as was his custom,
by giving them manuscripts of his chronicle, which was growing
apace. By the middle of 1373 we find him become a churchman and
provided with a living, in which he remained ten years, compiling
fresh history and correcting what he had already written and put in
circulation. A little later, 1376 to 1383, he made a more thorough
revision of his chronicle, going so far as to modify its spirit, which
had been favorable to English character and policy, and make it
more agreeable to partisans of France. Although Froissart was not a
Frenchman, his writings are all in the French language, which was
of course his native tongue.
About the beginning of 1384 he was made a canon of the Church,
at Chimay, a small town near the French frontier, and in this region
he observed the military movements then going on there, and re-
corded them immediately in Book ii. of his chronicle. Four years of
quiet were however too much for his mobile and energetic spirit;
and in 1388, hearing that the Count Gaston de Foix, in the Pyrenees,
was a man likely to know many details of the English wars in Gas-
cony and Guyenne, he set out to visit him, taking among other pres-
ents a book of his poetry and two couples of hounds. When he still
had ten days to travel he met a gentleman of Foix, with whom he
journeyed the rest of the way, beguiling the time with talk about the
sieges the various towns upon their route had suffered.
"At the words which he spoke I was delighted, for they pleased me much,
and right well did I retain them all; and as soon as I had dismounted at the
hostelries along the road which we traveled together, I wrote them down, at
evening as in the morning, to have a better record of them in times to come;
for there is nothing so retentive as writing. "


## p. 6038 (#632) ###########################################

6038
FROISSART
Count Gaston received him hospitably, and filled his three months'
sojourn with stories of great events. Then Froissart visited many
towns of Provence and Languedoc. These peregrinations furnished
much of the material for Book iii. Little more is known of his life,
except with respect to a visit to England which he made in 1394,
and which enabled him to collect material for a large part of Book
iv. , the last in the chronicle. He is supposed to have died at Chi-
may, later than 1400, and perhaps, as tradition asserts, in 1410.
It is an engaging picture, this, of a genial, sharp-eyed, some-
what worldly churchman, riding his gray horse over hill and dale in
quest of knowledge. We can fancy him arriving at his inn of an
evening, and at once asking the obsequious host what knight or other
great person dwells in the neighborhood. He loses no time before
calling at the castle, and is gladly admitted when he tells his well-
known name. He is ready to pay for any historical information with
a story from his own collection. He is welcome everywhere, and for
his part does not regret the time thus spent, nor the money,- sev-
eral fortunes, by his own count,- for he has the light heart of the
true traveler. It is always sunshine where he goes. The clangor
of arms and the blare of trumpets hover ever above the horizon.
Around the corner of every hill sits a fair castle by a shining river.
From town to town, from province to province, his love of listening
draws him on. To realize the charm of journeying in those days,
we must remember that the local customs and qualities were almost
undisturbed by communication; two French cities only a score of
miles apart would often differ from each other as much as Nurem-
berg does from Venice.
"And I tell you for a truth," we read, "that to make these chronicles I
have gone in my time much through the world, both to fulfill my pleasure
by seeing the wonders of the earth, and to inquire about the arms and advent-
ures that are written in this book. "
So to horse, good Canon of Chimay! Throw aside books; there is
news of fighting in the South; after the battle, soldiers will talk.
There have been deeds of courage and romance. Hasten thither,
while the tale of them is new!
If he were not so celebrated as a chronicler, Froissart would be
known as one of the last of the wandering minstrels. He had the
roving foot; he lived by charming the rich into generosity with his
recitals. And he wrote much poetry, which is little read, except
where it has some autobiographical interest. We possess the long
poems, 'L'Espinette Amoureuse,' 'Le Buisson de Jeunesse,' 'Le Dit
du Florin,' and several shorter pieces, with fragments of his once
famous versified romance Méliador. '


## p. 6039 (#633) ###########################################

FROISSART
6039
His great prose work, while professing to be a history, in distinc-
tion from the chronicles of previous writers, is however not an
orderly narration, nor is it a philosophical treatment of political
causes and effects. It is a collection of pictures and stories, without
much unity except the constant purpose of exhibiting the prowess of
knighthood. There is not much indication even of partisanship or
patriotic feeling. Froissart generally gives due meed of praise to the
best knight in every bout, the best battalion in every encounter,
regardless of sides.
The subjects treated are so numerous and disparate that no gen-
eral idea of them can be given. They cover the time from 1326 to
1394, and lead us through England, Scotland, Flanders, Hainault,
France, Italy, Spain, and Northern Africa. Among the most interest-
ing passages are the story of King Edward's campaign against the
Scots; his march through France; the battle of Crécy; the siege of
Calais; Wat Tyler's Rebellion, which Froissart the well-fed parasite
treats with an odd and inconsistent mingling of horror and contempt;
the Jacquerie, which he says was the work of peasant dogs, the scum
of the earth; the battle of Poitiers, with a fine description of the Black
Prince waiting at table on poor captured King Jean; and the rise
and fall of Philip van Artevelde.
Froissart's chronicle used to be regarded as authoritative history.
But as might have been expected from his mode of inquiry, it is full
of geographical, chronological, and other errors. Getting his infor-
mation by ear, he wrote proper names phonetically, or turned
them into something resembling French. Thus Worcester becomes
"Vaucestre," Seymour "Simon," Sutherland "Surlant," Walter Tyler
"Vautre Tuilier," Edinburgh "Hedaimbourch," Stirling "Eturmelin. "
The persons from whom he got his material were generally partisans
either of France or of England, and often told him their stories
years after the events; so that although he tried to be impartial
himself, and to offset one witness by another, he seldom heard a
judicial account of a battle or a quarrel. He seems to have con-
sulted few written records, though he might easily have seen the
State papers of England and Hainault.
It is useless to blame him, however; for the writing of mere his-
tory was not his purpose. With all his fine devotion to his life
work, a devotion which is the more admirable when we consider his
pleasure-loving nature,- with all his attention to fairness, his great
concern was not so much to instruct as to delight, first himself, sec-
ondly the great people of his age, and lastly posterity, on whom he
ever and anon cast a shrewd and longing glance. To please his con-
temporaries, he several times revised his work. Posterity has nearly
always preferred what might be called the first edition, which is the
most unconscious and entertaining, though the least precise.


## p. 6040 (#634) ###########################################

6040
FROISSART
But if we must deny him much of the value as a political his-
torian which was once attributed to him, we may still regard him as
a great authority for the general aspect of life in the fourteenth
century. Manners, customs, morals, as well as armor and dress, are
no doubt correctly portrayed in his book. We learn from it what
was deemed virtue and what vice; we learn that although religion
was sincerely professed by the upper classes, it was not very success-
fully practiced, and had amazingly little effect upon morals. We are
struck, for instance, with the absence of imagination or sympathy
which permitted people to witness the horrible tortures inflicted on
prisoners and criminals, although their minds were frequently filled
with visions of supernatural beings. Froissart unconsciously makes
himself, too, a medium for studying human character in his time, by
his negative morality, his complacent recording of crimes, his uncon-
cerned mention of horrors. Yet from his bringing up as a poet, and
his scholarly associations, and his connection with the Church, it is
likely he was a gentler man than nine-tenths of the knights and
squires and men-at-arms about him.
There is an indifference colder even than cynicism in his failure
to remark on the sufferings of the poor, which were so awful in his
age. It is the result of class prejudice, and seems deliberate. The
burned village, the trampled grain-field, the cowering women, the
starved children, the rotting corpses, the mangled forms of living
and agonizing foot-soldiers,-- all these consequences of war he sees
and occasionally mentions, yet they hardly touch him. But he is
forever mourning the death of stricken knights as if it were a woe-
ful loss. Yet for all his association with the governing class, we
never find ourselves thinking of him as anything but a commoner
raised to fortune by genius and favor. He has not the distinction of
Joinville, who was a nobleman in the conventional sense and also in
the truest sense.
Froissart's merit, then, is not that he is a great political historian,
nor even a great historian of the culture of his time. He did not
see accurately enough to be the first, nor broadly and deeply and
independently enough to be the second. But kindly Nature made
him something else, and enabled him to win that name "which hon-
oreth most and most endureth. " She gave him the painter's eye, the
poet's fancy, and it is as the artist of chivalry he lives to-day. His
chronicle may be often false to historical fact, it may not display a
broad and sympathetic intelligence or a generous impatience of con-
ventionality, but it does please, it does enthrall. It is one of those
books without moral intent, like the Arabian Nights, which the boys
of all ages will persist in reading, and which men delight in if they
love good pictures and good story-telling. No more lasting colors
have come down to us from Venetian painters than those which rush


## p. 6041 (#635) ###########################################

FROISSART
6041
out from the words on his pages. His scenes do not take shape in
our minds as etchings or engravings, but smile themselves into being,
like oil-paintings. Sunlight, the glint of steel, red and yellow ban-
ners waving, white horses galloping over the sand, flashing armor,
glittering spurs, the shining faces of eager men, fill with glory this
great pictorial wonder-book of the Middle Ages.
GeoMi Lion Harper
THE INVASION OF FRANCE BY KING EDWARD III, AND THE
BATTLE OF CRÉCY
From the Chronicles': Translation of John Bourchier, Lord Berners
HOW THE KING OF ENGLAND RODE THROUGH NORMANDY
WHEN
THEN the King of England arrived in the Hogue Saint-Vaast,
the King issued out of his ship, and the first foot that he
set on the ground he fell so rudely that the blood brast
out of his nose. The knights that were about him took him up
and said, "Sir, for God's sake enter again into your ship, and
come not aland this day, for this is but an evil sign for us. "
Then the King answered quickly and said, "Wherefore? This is
a good token for me, for the land desireth to have me. " Of the
which answer all his men were right joyful. So that day and
night the King lodged on the sands, and in the mean time dis-
charged the ships of their horses and other baggages; there the
King made two marshals of his host, the one the Lord Godfrey
of Harcourt and the other the Earl of Warwick, and the Earl of
Arundel constable. And he ordained that the Earl of Hunting-
don should keep the fleet of ships with a hundred men of arms
and four hundred archers; and also he ordained three battles, one
to go on his right hand, closing to the seaside, and the other on
his left hand, and the King himself in the midst, and every night
to lodge all in one field.
Thus they set forth as they were ordained, and they that went
by the sea took all the ships that they found in their ways; and
so long they went forth, what by sea and what by land, that they
came to a good port and to a good town called Barfleur, the


## p. 6042 (#636) ###########################################

6042
FROISSART
which incontinent was won, for they within gave up for fear of
death. Howbeit, for all that, the town was robbed, and much
gold and silver there found, and rich jewels; there was found so
much riches, that the boys and villains of the host set nothing
by good furred gowns; they made all the men of the town to
issue out and to go into the ships, because they would not suffer
them to be behind them for fear of rebelling again. After the
town of Barfleur was thus taken and robbed without brenning,
then they spread abroad in the country and did what they list,
for there was not to resist them. At last they came to a great
and a rich town called Cherbourg; the town they won and robbed
it, and brent part thereof, but into the castle they could not
come, it was so strong and well furnished with men of war.
OF THE GREAT ASSEMBLY THAT THE FRENCH KING MADE TO RESIST
THE KING OF ENGLAND
THUS by the Englishmen was brent, exiled, robbed, wasted,
and pilled the good plentiful country of Normandy. Then the
French King sent for the Lord John of Hainault, who came to
him with a great number; also the King sent for other men of
arms, dukes, earls, barons, knights, and squires, and assembled
together the greatest number of people that had been seen in
France a hundred year before. He sent for men into so far
countries, that it was long or they came together, wherefore the
King of England did what him list in the mean season. The
French King heard well what he did, and sware and said how
they should never return again unfought withal, and that such
hurts and damages as they had done should be dearly revenged;
wherefore he had sent letters to his friends in the Empire, to
such as were farthest off, and also to the gentle King of Bohe-
mia and to the Lord Charles his son, who from thenceforth was
called King of Almaine; he was made King by the aid of his
father and the French King, and had taken on him the arms of
the Empire: the French King desired them to come to him with
all their powers, to the intent to fight with the King of England,
who brent and wasted his country. These Princes and Lords
made them ready with great number of men of arms, of Almains,
Bohemians, and Luxemburgers, and so came to the French King.
Also King Philip sent to the Duke of Lorraine, who came to
serve him with three hundred spears; also there came the Earl


## p. 6043 (#637) ###########################################

FROISSART
6043
[of] Salm in Saumois, the Earl of Sarrebruck, the Earl of Flan-
ders, the Earl William of Namur, every man with a fair company.
Ye have heard herebefore of the order of the Englishmen;
how they went in three battles, the marshals on the right hand
and on the left, the King and the Prince of Wales his son in the
midst. They rode but small journeys, and every day took their
lodgings between noon and three of the clock, and found the
country so fruitful that they needed not to make no provision for
their host, but all only for wine; and yet they found reasonably
sufficient thereof. It was no marvel, though, they of the coun-
try were afraid; for before that time they had never seen men of
war, nor they wist not what war or battle meant. They fled
away as far as they might hear speaking of the Englishmen, and
left their houses well stuffed, and granges full of corn; they wist
not how to save and keep it. The King of England and the
Prince had in their battle a three thousand men of arms and six
thousand archers, and a ten thousand men afoot, beside them
that rode with the marshals.
Then the King went toward Caen, the which was a greater
town and full of drapery and other merchandise, and rich bur-
gesses, noble ladies and damosels, and fair churches, and spe-
cially two great and rich abbeys, one of the Trinity, another of
Saint Stephen; and on the one side of the town one of the fair-
est castles of all Normandy, and captain therein was Robert of
Wargny, with three hundred Genoways, and in the town was the
Earl of Eu and of Guines, Constable of France, and the Earl of
Tancarville, with a good number of men of war. The King of
England rode that day in good order and lodged all his battles
together that night, a two leagues from Caen, in a town with a
little haven called Austrehem, and thither came also all his navy
of ships with the Earl of Huntingdon, who was governour of
them.
The constable and other lords of France that night watched
well the town of Caen, and in the morning armed them with all
them of the town: then the constable ordained that none should
issue out, but keep their defenses on the walls, gate, bridge, and
river; and left the suburbs void, because they were not closed;
for they thought they should have enough to do to defend the
town, because it was not closed but with the river. They of the
town said how they would issue out, for they were strong enough
to fight with the King of England. When the constable saw their


## p. 6044 (#638) ###########################################

6044
FROISSART
good wills, he said, "In the name of God be it, ye shall not
fight without me. " Then they issued out in good order, and
made good face to fight and to defend them and to put their
lives in adventure.
OF THE BATTLE OF CAEN, AND HOW THE ENGLISHMEN TOOK THE TOWN
THE same day the Englishmen rose early and appareled them
ready to go to Caen. * The King heard mass before the sun-
rising, and then took his horse, and the Prince his son, with Sir
Godfrey of Harcourt, marshal and leader of the host, whose coun-
sel the King much followed. Then they drew toward Caen with
their battles in good array, and so approached the good town of
Caen. When they of the town, who were ready in the field, saw
these three battles coming in good order, with their banners and
standards waving in the wind, and the archers, the which they
had not been accustomed to see, they were sore afraid and fled
away toward the town without any order or good array, for all
that the constable could do; then the Englishmen pursued them.
eagerly. When the constable and the Earl Tancarville saw that,
they took a gate at the entry and saved themselves and certain
with them, for the Englishmen were entered into the town.
Some of the knights and squires of France, such as knew the
way to the castle, went thither, and the captain there received.
them all, for the castle was large. The Englishmen in the chase.
slew many, for they took none to mercy.
Then the constable and the Earl of Tancarville, being in the
little tower at the bridge foot, looked along the street and saw
their men slain without mercy; they doubted to fall in their
hands. At last they saw an English knight with one eye, called
Sir Thomas Holland, and a five or six other knights with him;
they knew them, for they had seen them before in Pruce, in
Granade, and in other viages. Then they called to Sir Thomas
and said how they would yield themselves prisoners. Then Sir
Thomas came thither with his company and mounted up into
the gate, and there found the said lords with twenty-five
knights with them, who yielded them to Sir Thomas; and he
*This was 26th July, 1346. Edward arrived at Poissy on 12th August;
Philip of Valois left Paris on the 14th; the English crossed the Seine at Poissy
on the 16th, and the Somme at Blanche-taque on the 24th.


## p. 6045 (#639) ###########################################

FROISSART
6045
took them for his prisoners and left company to keep them, and
then mounted again on his horse and rode into the streets, and
saved many lives of ladies, damosels, and cloisterers from defoil-
ing,- for the soldiers were without mercy. It fell so well the
same season for the Englishmen, that the river, which was able
to bear ships, at that time was so low that men went in and
out beside the bridge. They of the town were entered into their
houses, and cast down into the street stones, timber, and iron,
and slew and hurt more than five hundred Englishmen; where-
with the King was sore displeased. At night when he heard
thereof, he commanded that the next day all should be put to
the sword and the town brent; but then Sir Godfrey of Harcourt
said: "Dear sir, for God's sake assuage somewhat your courage,
and let it suffice you that ye have done. Ye have yet a great
voyage to do or ye come before Calais, whither ye purpose to
go: and sir, in this town there is much people who will defend
their houses, and it will cost many of your men their lives, or
ye have all at your will; whereby peradventure ye shall not keep
your purpose to Calais, the which should redound to your rack.
Sir, save your people, for ye shall have need of them or this
month pass; for I think verily your adversary King Philip will
meet with you to fight, and ye shall find many strait passages
and rencounters; wherefore your men, an ye had more, shall
stand you in good stead: and sir, without any further slaying ye
shall be lord of this town; men and women will put all that
they have to your pleasure. " Then the King said, "Sir Godfrey,
you are our marshal; ordain everything as ye will. " Then Sir
Godfrey with his banner rode from street to street, and com-
manded in the King's name none to be so hardy to put fire in
any house, to slay any person, nor to violate any woman. When
they of the town heard that cry, they received the Englishmen
into their houses and made them good cheer, and some opened
their coffers and bade them take what them list, so they might
be assured of their lives; howbeit there were done in the town
many evil deeds, murders, and robberies. Thus the Englishmen
were lords of the town three days and won great riches, the
which they sent by barks and barges to Saint-Saviour by the
river of Austrehem, a two leagues thence, whereas all their navy
lay. Then the King sent the Earl of Huntingdon with two
hundred men of arms and four hundred archers, with his navy
and prisoners and riches that they had got, back again into
England. And the King bought of Sir Thomas Holland the
-


## p. 6046 (#640) ###########################################

6046
FROISSART
Constable of France and the Earl of Tancarville, and paid for
them twenty thousand nobles.
The next day the King departed, brenning and wasting all
before him, and at night lodged in a good village called Grand-
villiers. The next day the King passed by Dargies; there was
none to defend the castle, wherefore it was soon taken and brent.
Then they went forth destroying the country all about, and so
came to the castle of Poix, where there was a good town and
two castles. There was nobody in them but two fair damosels,
daughters to the Lord of Poix; they were soon taken, and had
been violated, an two English knights had not been, Sir John
Chandos and Sir Basset; they defended them and brought them
to the King, who for his honor made them good cheer and
demanded of them whither they would fainest go. They said,
"To Corbie," and the King caused them to be brought thither
without peril. That night the King lodged in the town of Poix.
They of the town and of the castles spake that night with the
marshals of the host, to save them and their town from bren-
ning, and they to pay a certain sum of florins the next day as
soon as the host was departed. This was granted them, and in
the morning the King departed with all his host, except a certain
that were left there to receive the money that they of the town
had promised to pay. When they of the town saw the host
depart and but a few left behind, then they said they would pay
never a penny, and so ran out and set on the Englishmen, who
defended themselves as well as they might and sent after the
host for succor. When Sir Raynold Cobham and Sir Thomas
Holland, who had the rule of the rear guard, heard thereof, they
returned and cried, "Treason, treason! " and so came again to
Poix-ward and found their companions still fighting with them
of the town. Then anon they of the town were nigh all slain,
and the town brent, and the two castles beaten down. Then
they returned to the King's host, who was as then at Airaines
and there lodged, and had commanded all manner of men on
pain of death to do no hurt to no town of Arsyn,* for there the
King was minded to lie a day or two to take advice how he
might pass the river of Somme; for it was necessary for him to
pass the river, as ye shall hear after.
* Probably a misunderstanding by Froissart of the English word "arson":
the king's command being not to burn the towns on the Somme, as he
wanted them for shelter.


## p. 6047 (#641) ###########################################

FROISSART
6047
HOW THE FRENCH KING FOLLOWED THE KING OF ENGLAND IN
BEAUVOISINOIS
Now LET us speak of King Philip, who was at Saint-Denis and
his people about him, and daily increased. Then on a day he
departed and rode so long that he came to Coppegueule, a three
leagues from Amiens, and there he tarried. The King of Eng-
land, being at Airaines, wist not where for to pass the river of
Somme, the which was large and deep, and all bridges were
broken and the passages well kept. Then at the King's com-
mandment his two marshals with a thousand men of arms and
two thousand archers went along the river to find some passage,
and passed by Longpré, and came to the bridge of Remy, the which
was well kept with a great number of knights and squires and
men of the country. The Englishmen alighted afoot and assailed
the Frenchmen from the morning till it was noon; but the bridge
was so well fortified and defended that the Englishmen departed
without winning of anything. Then they went to a great town
called Fountains, on the river of Somme, the which was clean
robbed and brent, for it was not closed. Then they went to
another town called Long-en-Ponthieu; they could not win the
bridge, it was so well kept and defended. Then they departed
and went to Picquigny, and found the town, the bridge, and the
castle so well fortified that it was not likely to pass there; the
French King had so well defended the passages, to the intent
that the King of England should not pass the river of Somme,
to fight with him at his advantage or else to famish him there.
When these two marshals had assayed in all places to find
passage and could find none, they returned again to the King,
and shewed how they could find no passage in no place. The
same night the French King came to Amiens with more than a
hundred thousand men. The King of England was right pensive,
and the next morning heard mass before the sun-rising and then
dislodged; and every man followed the marshals' banners, and so
rode in the country of Vimeu approaching to the good town of
Abbeville, and found a town thereby, whereunto was come much
people of the country in trust of a little defense that was there;
but the Englishmen anon won it, and all they that were within
slain, and many taken of the town and of the country. The
King took his lodging in a great hospital* that was there.
The
That is, a house of the Knights of St. John.


## p. 6048 (#642) ###########################################

6048
FROISSART
same day the French King departed from Amiens and came to
Airaines about noon; and the Englishmen were departed thence
in the morning. The Frenchmen found there great provision
that the Englishmen had left behind them, because they departed
in haste. There they found flesh ready on the broaches, bread
and pasties in the ovens, wine in tuns and barrels, and the tables
ready laid. There the French King lodged and tarried for his
lords.
That night the King of England was lodged at Oisemont.
At night when the two marshals were returned, who had that
day overrun the country to the gates Abbeville and to Saint-
Valery and made a great skirmish there, then the King assem-
bled together his council and made to be brought before him
certain prisoners of the country of Ponthieu and of Vimeu. The
King right courteously demanded of them if there were any
among them that knew any passage beneath Abbeville, that he
and his host might pass over the river of Somme: if he would
shew him thereof, he should be quit of his ransom, and twenty
of his company for his love There was a varlet called Gobin
Agace, who stepped forth and said to the King:-"Sir, I promise
you on the jeopardy of my head I shall bring you to such a
place, whereas ye and all your host shall pass the river of
Somme without peril. There be certain places in the passage
that ye shall pass twelve men afront two times between day and
night; ye shall not go in the water to the knees. But when the
flood cometh, the river then waxeth so great that no man can
pass; but when the flood is gone, the which is two times between
day and night, then the river is so low that it may be passed
without danger both a-horseback and afoot. The passage is hard
in the bottom, with white stones, so that all your carriage may
go surely; therefore the passage is called Blanche-Taque. An ye
make ready to depart betimes, ye may be there by the sun-
rising. " The King said, "If this be true that ye say, I quit
thee thy ransom and all thy company, and moreover shall give
thee a hundred nobles. " Then the King commanded every man
to be ready at the sound of the trumpet to depart.


## p. 6049 (#643) ###########################################

FROISSART
6049
OF THE BATTLE OF BLANCHE-TAQUE
THE King of England slept not much that night, for at mid-
night he arose and sowned his trumpet; then incontinent they
made ready carriages and all things, and at the breaking of the
day they departed from the town of Oisemont and rode after the
guiding of Gobin Agace, so that they came by the sun-rising to
Blanche-Taque: but as then the flood was up, so that they might
not pass, so the King tarried there till it was prime; then the
ebb came.