Eodem tempore dux Glouerniæ Dominus Thomas de Woodstock [Marginal note: Filius natu minimus Edwardi 3.], multis moerentibus, iter apparauit versùs le Pruys: quem non Loudinensium gemitus, non communis vulgi moeror retinere poterant, quin proficisci vellet. Nam plebs communis tàm Vrbana quàm rustica metuebant quòd eo absente aliquod nouum detrimentum succresceret, quo præsente nihil tale timebant. Siquidèm in eo spes & solatium totus patriæ reposita videbantur. Ipse verò mòx, vt fines patriæ suæ transijt, illicò aduersa agitatus fortuna, nunc hàc nunc illàc turbinibus procellosis circumfertur; & in tantum destituitur, vt de vita etiam desperaret. [Sidenote: Reditus.] Tandem post Daciam, post Norwagiam, post Scoticam barbariem non sine mortis pauore transcursam, peruenit Northumbriam, & ad castellum se contulit de Tinnemutha velut assylum antiquitus notum sibi: vbi per aliquot dies recreatus iter assumpsit versus manerium suum de Plashy, magnum apportans gaudium toti regno, tam de eius euasione, quàm de aduentu suo. The same in English. At the same time the Duke of Glocester Lord Thomas of Woodstock (the yongest sonne of Edward the third) to the great griefe of many, tooke his iourney towards Prussia: whom neither the Londoners mones nor yet the lamentation of the communaltie could restraine from his intended expedition. For the common people both of the Citie and of the countrey feared lest in his absence some newe calamitie might happen; which they feared not while he was present. For in him the whole nation seemed to repose their hope and comfort. Howbeit hauing skarce passed as yet the bounds of his owne countrey, he was immediatly by hard fortune tossed vp and downe with dangerous stormes and tempests, and was brought into such distresse, that he despaired euen of his owne life. At length, hauing not without danger of death, sailed along the coastes of Denmarke, Norway, and Scotland, he returned into Northumberland, and went to the castle of Tinmouth as vnto a place of refuge knowen of olde vnto him; where, after hee had refreshed himselfe a fewe dayes, hee tooke his iourney toward his Mannour of Plashy, bringing great ioy vnto the whole kingdome, aswell in regard of his safetie as of his returne. * * * * * The verses of Geofrey Chaucer in the knights Prologue, who liuing in the yeere 1402. [Footnote: Chaucer died 25. October, 1400, according to the inscription on his tombstone at Westminster. Urry, in his edition of Chaucer, folio, 1721, p. 534, attributes the _Epistle to Cupid_ to Thomas Occleue, Chaucer's scholar, but does not give his authority.] (as hee writeth himselfe in his Epistle of Cupide) shewed that the English Knights after the losse of Acon, were wont in his time to trauaile into Prussia and Lettowe, and other heathen lands, to aduance the Christian faith against Infidels and miscreants, and to seeke honour by feats of armes. The English Knights Prologue.