proved very useful to me.... Wherever I went I enquired of old knights
and squires who had shared in deeds of arms, and could speak with
authority concerning them, and also spoke with heralds in order to
verify and corroborate all that was told me. In this way I gathered
noble facts for my history, and as long as I live, I shall, by the
grace of God, continue to do this, for the more I labour at this the
more pleasure I have, and I trust that the gentle knight who loves
arms will be nourished on such noble fare, and accomplish still more."_




THE CAMPAIGN OF CRECY

HOW THE KING OF ENGLAND CAME OVER THE SEA AGAIN, TO RESCUE THEM IN
AIGUILLON


The king of England, who had heard how his men were sore constrained
in the castle of Aiguillon, then he thought to go over the sea into
Gascoyne with a great army. There he made his provision and sent for
men all about his realm and in other places, where he thought to speed
for his money. In the same season the lord Godfrey of Harcourt came
into England, who was banished out of France: he was well received
with the king and retained to be about him, and had fair lands
assigned him in England to maintain his degree. Then the king caused a
great navy of ships to be ready in the haven of Hampton, and caused
all manner of men of war to draw thither. About the feast of Saint
John Baptist the year of our Lord God MCCCXLVI., the king departed
from the queen and left her in the guiding of the earl of Kent his