E-text prepared by Charlene Taylor, Graeme Mackreth, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/toronto) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 34886-h.htm or 34886-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/34886/pg34886-images.html) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/34886/34886-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/stgeorgeforengla00hentuoft ST. GEORGE FOR ENGLAND: A Tale of Cressy and Poitiers. by G.A. HENTY, Author of "With Clive in India," "Under Drake's Flag," "The Young Carthaginian," "Bonnie Prince Charlie," etc., etc. Eight Page Illustrations by Gordon Browne. [Illustration: ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF SIR WALTER.] New York: A. L. Burt, Publisher. PREFACE. MY DEAR LADS: You may be told perhaps that there is no good to be obtained from tales of fighting and bloodshed--that there is no moral to be drawn from such histories. Believe it not. War has its lessons as well as Peace. You will learn from tales like this that determination and enthusiasm can accomplish marvels, that true courage is generally accompanied by magnanimity and gentleness, and that if not in itself the very highest of virtues, it is the parent of almost all the others, since but few of them can be practiced without it. The courage of our forefathers has created the greatest empire in the world around a small and in itself insignificant island; if this empire is ever lost, it will be by the cowardice of their descendants. At no period of her history did England stand so high in the eyes of Europe as in the time whose events are recorded in this volume. A chivalrous king and an even more chivalrous prince had infected the whole people with their martial spirit, and the result was that their armies were for a time invincible, and the most astonishing successes were gained against numbers which would appear overwhelming. The victories of Cressy and Poitiers may be to some extent accounted for by superior generalship and discipline on the part of the conquerors; but this will not account for the great naval victory over the Spanish fleet off the coast of Sussex, a victory even more surprising and won against greater odds than was that gained in the same waters centuries later over the Spanish Armada. The historical facts of the story are all drawn from Froissart and other contemporary historians, as collated and compared by Mr. James in his carefully written history. They may therefore be relied upon as accurate in every important particular. Yours sincerely, G. A. HENTY. CONTENTS. PAGE