Now let us turn to the Black Prince and learn why the Londoners so enthusiastically greet him. He is but twenty-seven years of age, yet he has many a hard-fought campaign to his credit. At thirteen years of age he was made Prince of Wales, and invested with the symbols of his office—the coronet of gold, the ring, and the silver wand. In his honour the king, his royal father, then held a Feast of the Round Table, and from every country of Europe came the most renowned knights to commemorate the fame of King Arthur, and to pledge themselves to emulate his chivalry, his courtesy, and his feats of arms. Never before had there been so splendid a pageant seen as that which King Edward arrayed beneath the ancient walls of Windsor Castle. The Black Prince that day yearned for the hour when he, too, might take spear and shield and break a lance in the tourney as a preparation for winning renown on the battlefield. Long before he was out of his teens he made acquaintance with the dangers and rigours of war in real earnest. In his sixteenth year the longed-for moment arrived. He accompanied his father to France, and as he landed at La Hogue he received the honour of knighthood, though he had yet his “spurs to win.” But forthwith, as the chronicler tells us, he “made a right good beginning” by burning and ravaging the neighbouring country, and by fighting valiantly when Godemar du Fay endeavoured to prevent the English army from crossing the Somme. Then came the never-to-be-forgotten battle of Crécy, in which he won his spurs. When he rode into London after the battle of Crécy, every man, woman, and child in the great city loved him, and prophesied a wondrous future for him. And they were true prophets, for his fame grew with the years; and now they see him among them once more, victor in his own right, and bringing in his train the “Fortune of France.” What stories of his prowess and gallantry and modesty they tell! Listen to yon burly archer now released from duty. “I mind,” says he, “that after yonder king had yielded himself, the prince led him to his own tent, took off his helmet with his own hands, brought him drink, and gave him comfortable words, and served him at table as he had been a base serving-man and not the heir of Merry England. What think ye of that?”