s they were they had not assumed that tinge of
fierceness which in after years was to make "The Black Prince" a name
of terror on the marches of France. Not yet had the first shadow of fell
disease come to poison his nature ere it struck at his life, as he rode
that spring day, light and debonair, upon the heath of Crooksbury.

On the left of the King, and so near to him that great intimacy
was implied, rode a man about his own age, with the broad face, the
projecting jaw and the flattish nose which are often the outward
indications of a pugnacious nature.

His complexion was crimson, his large blue eyes somewhat prominent,
and his whole appearance full-blooded and choleric. He was short, but
massively built, and evidently possessed of immense strength. His voice,
however, when he spoke was gentle and lisping, while his manner was
quiet and courteous. Unlike the King or the Prince, he was clad in light
armor and carried a sword by his side and a mace at his saddle-bow, for
he was acting as Captain of the King's Guard, and a dozen other knights
in steel followed in the escort. No hardier soldier could Edward have
at his side, if, as was always possible in those lawless times, sudden
danger was to threaten, for this was the famous knight of Hainault,
now naturalized as an Englishman, Sir Walter Manny, who bore as high
a reputation for chivalrous valor and for gallant temerity as Chandos
himself.

Behind the knights, who were forbidden to scatter and must always follow
the King's person, there was a body of twenty or thirty hobblers or
mounted bowmen, together with several squires, unarmed themselves but
leading spare horses upon which the heavier part of their knights'
equipment was carried. A straggling tail of falconers, harbingers,
varlets, body-servants and huntsmen holding hounds in leash completed
the long and many-colored train which rose and dipped on the low
undulations of the moor.

Many weighty things were on the mind of Edward the King. There was truce
for the moment with France, but it was a truce broken by many small
deeds of arms, raids, surprises and ambushes upon either side, and it
was certain that it would soon dissolve again into open war. Money must
be raised, and it was no light matter to raise it, now that the Commons
had once already voted the tenth lamb and the tenth sheaf. Besides, the
Black Death had ruined the country, the arable land was all turned
to pasture, the laborer, laughing at stat