ample testimony (too
often neglected) to the authenticity of sacred documents, and to the
origin of laws. It is even of some assistance in establishing certain main
points upon a military action, if documents are in default. For instance,
a firm tradition of the site of a battle is evidence not only in the
absence of documents, but in negation of doubtful or vague ones, and so is
a firm tradition concerning the respective strength of the parties, if
that tradition can be stated in general terms. But for the particular
interest of military history it is worthless because it is silent. Even
the civilian to-day, and, for that matter, the soldier as well, who is
not accustomed to this science, would find it tedious to note, and often
impossible to recognise, those points which form the salient matters for
military history. There can be no tradition of the exact moments in which
such and such a development in a battle occurred, of contours, of range,
etc., save where here and there some very striking event (as in the case
of the projectile launched into the midst of Acre during the Third
Crusade) startles the mind of the onlooker, and remains unforgotten.

In the particular case of Crecy, tradition fixes for us only two
points--though these have proved of considerable importance in modern
discussion--the point where the King of Bohemia fell, and the point from
which Edward III. watched the battle.

Of monuments, again, we have a very insufficient supply, and in the case
of Crecy, hardly any, unless the point already alluded to, where the blind
king was struck down, and the cross marking it be counted, as also the
foundations of the mill, which was the view-point of the English
commander.

It is to documents, then, that we must look, and, unfortunately for this
action, our principal document is not contemporary. It is from the pen of
Froissart, who was but nine years old when the battle was fought, and who
wrote many years after its occurrence. Even so, his earlier version does
not seem to be familiar to the public of this country, though it is
certainly the more accurate.

Froissart used a contemporary document proceeding from the pen of one
"John the Fair," a canon of Liege. Of the lesser authorities some are
contemporary: notably Baker of Swynford, and Villani, who died shortly
after the battle.

But the whole bulk of material at our disposal is pitifully small, and the
greater part of what the reader will have set be