methinks there will be glory and honour to be won ore this campaign closes!"

And, indeed, for a brief space it did seem as though King Edward's
progress was to be one of unchecked victory; for he had already routed
the French King's Constable, sent to try to save Caen; had taken and
pillaged that city, and had marched unopposed through Carbon, Lisieux,
and Louviers to Rouen, leaving terrible devastation behind, as the
soldiers seized upon everything in the way of food from the hapless
inhabitants, though not repeating the scenes which had disgraced the
English colours at Caen.

But at Rouen came the first of those checks which in time became so
vexatious and even perilous to the English army. The French, in great
alarm, had realized that something must be done to check Edward's
victorious career; and as it was plain that if he turned his steps
northward there would be no chance of opposing him, their aim and object
was to pen him as far in the south as possible, so that the army in
Gascony, perhaps, or failing that the new one mustering rapidly round
the King in Paris, might close in upon the alien army and cut them to
pieces by sheer force of numbers, before they could reach the coast and
their ships. So Philip, recovering from his first panic, sent orders
that all the bridges between Rouen and Paris should be broken down; and
when Edward reached the former city, intending to cross there to the
north side of the Seine, he found only the broken piers and arches of
the bridge left standing, and the wide, turbid waters of the great river
barring his further progress.

Irritated and annoyed, but not really alarmed as yet, the English King
turned his steps eastward toward Paris, still resolved to cross by the
first bridge found standing. But each in turn had been broken down; and