oth parties should come
together by battle,' Then the cardinal rode again to the king and
said: 'Sir, ye need not to make any great haste to fight with your
enemies, for they cannot fly from you though they would, they be in
such a ground: wherefore, sir, I require you forbear for this day till
tomorrow the sun-rising.' The king was loath to agree thereto, for
some of his council would not consent to it; but finally the cardinal
shewed such reasons, that the king accorded that respite: and in the
same place there was pight up a pavilion of red silk fresh and rich,
and gave leave for that day every man to draw to their lodgings except
the constable's and marshals' battles.

[1] Talleyrand de Perigord.

[2] The meaning is, 'Ye have here all the flower of your realm
against a handful of people, for so the Englishmen are as
compared with your company.'

That Sunday all the day the cardinal travailed in riding from the one
host to the other gladly to agree them: but the French king would
not agree without he might have four of the principallest of the
Englishmen at his pleasure, and the prince and all the other to yield
themselves simply: howbeit there were many great offers made. The
prince offered to render into the king's hands all that ever he had
won in that voyage, towns and castles, and to quit all prisoners that
he or any of his men had taken in that season, and also to swear not
to be armed against the French king in seven year after; but the king
and his council would none thereof: the uttermost that he would do
was, that the prince and a hundred of his knights should yield
themselves into the king's prison; otherwise he would not: the which
the prince would in no wise agree unto.

In the mean season that the cardinal rode thus between the hosts in
trust to do some good, certain knights of France and of England both
rode forth the same Sunday, because it was truce for that day, to
coast the hosts and to behold the dealing of their enemies. So it
fortuned that the lord John Chandos rode the same day coasting the
French host, and in like manner the lord of Clermont, one of the
French marshals, had ridden forth and aviewed the state of the English
host; and as these two knights returned towards their hosts, they met
together: each of them bare one manner of device, a blue lady
embroidered in a sunbeam above on their apparel. Then the lord
Clermont said: 'Chandos, how long have ye taken on