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ried ring, lcaned against each other, too wcak to stand. This condition of stalemate was resolvcd whcn a French kniglit slunk off to the side, found a horse, scrambled into the saddlc, and rode straight at the propped-together English, who tell down in all directions and lay there, utterly spent. So the victory was given to the French. The English had lost eight killed, and the rest were carted off to Josselin as prisoners of war. Because of their valour, they were bathed, bandaged, feasted and let off with onlv nominał ransoms.

Croquart was considered to be the hero of this fight. King John of France offered to knight him if he wouid change sides, give him a rich heiress in marriage, and 2,000 livres a year, but Croquart had done so well out of his brigandage - he was said to be worth 40,000 crowns and had stable of twenty or thirty mag-nificent horses, all of a deep roan colour - that he always refused. A few years later, when he was breaking in a new yonng horse, he was thrown, and broke his neck. "Such," says Froissart, "was the end of Croquart."

There, I have gone on at some length about Froissart and then written a long description of a fight which he barely men-tions; nor have I anywhere in that narrative said a word about how these stiff and sharp swords were used. Never mind - I think this immortal "Battle of the Thirty" is worth describing.

In 1823, a large, tali obelisk was built in that field as a monument; and in the church at Bunbury, in Cheshire, is the beautiful alabaster effigy of Sir Hugh Caveley, one of the English knights who fought on that day and who lived to become one of the most famous captains of Free Companies during the second half of the 14th century. Froissart himself, many years later, tells how he met one of the French knights who fought at the Half-Way Oak, and he says his face was so battered and slashcd about that it was hardly recognisable as a human visage.

In order to redeem a little of what I said about Froissart's excellent and vivid description of the way swords were used, I had better include, before I finish, a few lines he wrote about an incident which took place at the end of the great Battle of Poitiers, on September 18th 1356.

Figurc 114. The very cssence of a medicval sword. A late example (c.1480-1500) of a Type XVIII, Milano. The hilt is of bronze gilt. Author's photo.