disappeared.

The bank or fall of land from this crest of the English position down to
the lowest point of the trough, steeper towards its southern, or Crecy,
easier towards its northern, or Wadicourt, end is, upon the average, a
slope of one in thirty; just steep enough to produce its effect upon a
charging crowd (especially over soil drenched by rain), and falling just
sufficiently to give their maximum value to the arrow-shafts of the
long-bow, which was the chief arm of Edward's command.

The opposing slope, that which lies to the south and east of the vale, and
from which the traveller faces the sea-breeze blowing from a shore not
fifteen miles away, is much easier and more gentle even than its
counterpart. The ridge of it stands above the lowest point of the Val aux
Clercs no higher than the corresponding and opposite ridge which the
English King occupied with his army, but the fall covers double the
distance. It is not 400 yards, but more like a mile, and the average of
the decline is one in fifty at the most.

Moreover, this opposing ridge is neither as cleanly marked as the
Crecy-Wadicourt line nor parallel to it. It is impossible to fix upon it,
with any definition, a true crest. The slope undulates very gradually into
the general level of the plateau, and is so formed that the Val aux Clercs
is funnel-shaped, much wider at the mouth on the Maye than towards its
upper end.

The depression, therefore, which was the theatre of the action, is in the
main V-shaped, and its mouth is a full mile in breadth, while its last
faint upper portion is not half that width.

Such, in detail, is the field of Crecy.

I have attempted in the cut opposite p. 91 to express graphically its main
features as they would appear upon a model carved in wood and plotted to
show the actual relief of the soil.

I will conclude by pointing out to the English reader a curious parallel.
The field of Crecy has many analogies to the field of Waterloo. In both
cases two opposing ridges roughly determine the general plan. In both a
depression, double and complex in the modern, single in the medieval,
instance, lies between the two lines. That of Crecy, as was suitable for a
day in which no missiles of long range were available, is somewhat more
marked and affords somewhat more of an obstacle to the offensive than that
of Waterloo. In both the French formed the attacking force and in both the
defensive position was chosen with singular mast