e, and enabled him to win that name "which honoreth 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 conventionality,
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 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 banners 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.

[Signature: Geo McLean Harper]

THE INVASION OF FRANCE BY KING EDWARD III., AND THE BATTLE OF CRECY

From the 'Chronicles': Translation of John Bourchier, Lord Berners

HOW THE KING OF ENGLAND RODE THROUGH NORMANDY

When 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
discharged 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 Huntingdon 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