Saint George for England

by G. A. Henty




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 practised
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