THE name of Edward the Black Prince will always be remembered with love and admiration by all young Englishmen, because he was by all accounts a very brave, gallant, and courteous prince, feared by his foes and by his friends beloved. His father, Edward the Third, had not given up his hopes of regaining his lost possessions in France, so he spent two long years in getting together money and ships and an army. He fought the French fleet near Sluys. Both sides fought fiercely, and at last the English won. The French had thought that they were quite sure to get the best of it, and they were afraid to tell the King of France how the English had beaten them, for hundreds of the French had been either killed or been forced to jump into the sea to escape the swords of the English. Now, at this time every king kept a jester to make jokes and amuse him and his friends at their feasts, and the jester was a privileged person, who could say anything he liked. So now they told the jester of the King of France that he must tell the king the bad news, because he could say what he liked and no one would punish him for it. So the jester said-- "Oh! what dastardly cowards the English are!" "How so?" said the king, who expected to hear that the cowardly English had been driven away by his men. [Illustration: ·KING· ·EDWARD· ·SAILS· ·FOR· ·FRANCE·] "Because," answered the jester, "they have not jumped into the sea as our brave men had to do." So then the king asked him what he meant, and then the courtiers came forward and told the sad story of the English victory. Then Edward besieged a town called Tournay, but he had not enough money to get provisions for his men, so he had to make friends with the king of France for a little while and go back to England. Six years later he pawned his crown and his queen's jewels, and at last got together enough money to go and fight with the French again. He landed at La Hogue, and as he landed he fell so violently that his nose began to bleed. "Oh, this is a bad sign," said his courtiers, "that your first step on French soil should be a fall." "Not so," said the king. "It is a good sign. It shows that the land desires me: so she takes me close to her." He had thirty-two thousand men with him, and his son, the Black Prince. Some say he was called the Black Prince because he wore black armour, but others say it was because he made himself as great a terror to the French as a black night is to foolish children.