excommunicated the "companies." They now asked for absolution, and demanded 200,000 florins. The absolution was granted, but the money refused. They then commenced to ravage the environs, and even threatened the city itself. Pope Urban V., becoming thoroughly alarmed, at last paid them half the amount demanded in order to be rid of them.

Du Guesclin then led them into Spain against Peter the Cruel, who was driven from his throne, while Henry was established in his place. Du Guesclin was rewarded with wealth and honors by Henry, who made him Constable of Castile, and created him Duke of Molina and Count of Burgos. He now went back to France; but Peter, having obtained assistance at Bourdeaux from the Black Prince, returned with a formidable army led by his ally. Du Guesclin at once hastened to the assistance of Henry, but was defeated and made prisoner at the battle of Navarretta, in 1367. He remained for some time in custody at Bourdeaux, but was ransomed on the payment of 100,000 francs by his friends, the Kings of Castile and France.

On his release, Du Guesclin again joined Henry against Peter the Cruel, who, in spite of the assistance given to him by the Moorish kings of Spain, was defeated and put to death, while his rival was established on the throne of Castile. On the subsequent rupture between the French and the English, Du Guesclin returned to the assistance of his own king, who in 1370 rewarded him with the high office of Constable of France. By activity and enterprise, tempered with prudence, he was successful in nearly every engagement against the English. He recovered all Poitou, Anjou, and Saintonge. He attacked Montfort, Duke of Brittany, and forced him to take refuge in England. When this Duke was afterwards restored to his dominions, and suspicions were thrown upon the Constable as having favored him, Du Guesclin felt the calumny so deeply that he resigned his command, and resolved to retire to Spain in order to spend the remainder of his life with Henry of Trastamare, whom he had established on the throne of Castile. The King of France, however, became sensible of the injustice done him, and the Dukes of Bourbon and Anjou were sent to bring him to Court.

Du Guesclin was placed again at the head of an expedition which was ordered to the southern provinces, where the English had rallied their forces. Whilst besieging the Château Neuf de Rendan, in Auvergne, with his friend John de Bueil, Count of Sancerre, he was taken seriously ill. Feeling the approach of death, he caused the principal officers to be summoned to his bedside and strongly exhorted them never to treat as enemies laborers, women, children and old men ; at the same time expressing his deep regret at not having himself always observed this rule. He expired in July, 1380, in the sixty-sixth year of his age. His body was conveyed to St. Denis with all the ceremonies used at the funeral of a sovereign, and deposited in the tomb next to that of the king. His greatest captains refused to take the sword of Constable after it had been borne by such a hero. A brave soldier, a valiant foe, Bertrand Du Guesclin died respected by his life-long enemies, the English, and deeply mourned by his countrymen. More than five centuries have elapsed since his death; yet he continues to be one of the most popular heroes of France.

THE TROUBLESOME FREE COMPANIES.

France was nominally at peace with everybody; but the internal disorder which seemed to be destroying her appeared only to increase in intensity. Most of the troops who had been serving either side in Brittany, even the English Hugh Calverly, the old chief known as the Archpriest, and a brother of the Count of Auxerre, who assumed the title of "the green knight," the followers of Du Guesclin, and all those who had served the King of Navarre, went to join the companies, whose numbers were thus vastly increased, and with them their presumption also.

Their chief haunt was in the rich districts in the centre of France, which they called their "chamber," for so large a number of them were either English, or Gascons, or men who had received English pay and felt a sort of attachment to the Prince of Wales, that they avoided the English territories in the South. Many of the "good people of the kingdom of France," Froissart tells us, murmured grievously against the King of England, because he did not interfere to compel these

companies, who were popularly confounded together under the name of English, to desist from their ravages. Hardly a district of France was now free from them, and they everywhere occupied villages and mansions, out of which they had expelled the rightful inhabitants, in order to turn them into dens of plunderers.

The only hope of riddance from these fearful guests lay in drawing them into some distant expedition, and it happened at this moment that the Hungarians were engaged in fierce warfare with the Turks. The Emperor of Germany, whose own dominions were in danger if the Hungarians succumbed, proposed to take the companies into his pay and send them into Hungary, and in consequence of a treaty between the Emperor and the King of France, a considerable number of them, led by the Archpriest, began their march towards Germany. In their way, they plundered and laid waste Champagne and Lorraine; and the reports of their atrocities, which preceded them, were such that when they reached the territory of the Empire they found the whole population in arms to resist them, and met with so rough a reception that they refused to go any further. Not long afterwards, the "Archpriest" was put to death by his own followers.

The first attempt to send away the companies had thus failed; but there were still two quarters in which they might be employed. The King of Cyprus, who had visited Avignon to engage the Pope and King Jean in a crusade, had returned to the East, had invaded Egypt in the autumn of this year (1365), and had taken and plundered Alexandria; but he was in want of troops to carry on the war against the infidels. On another side, Pedro, King of Castile, known by the title of Pedro the Cruel, had so exasperated his subjects by his tyranny that they invited to their assistance his illegitimate brother, Don Enrique, who had himself lived as an exile in Languedoc, in association with the chiefs of the companies, and now applied to the Pope and to the King of France for their assistance in inducing the companies to follow his standard. Either expedition held out hopes of rich booty; but the difficulty consisted in finding a man capable of gaining the confidence of the companies.

Charles V. immediately fixed his eyes upon Du Guesclin, who is said to have promised, at the time he received the county of Longueville from the King, that he would take the companies out of the kingdom. But Du Guesclin was still a prisoner in the hands of the English, who demanded for his ransom the then enormous sum of a hundred thousand francs, for the payment of which it is said that the King of France, the Pope, and Don Enrique, each contributed his share. Thus set at liberty, Du Guesclin undertook willingly the task imposed upon him, and the way in which he executed it, as told by his metrical biographer, is characteristic of the man and of the time.

Bertrand dispatched his messenger to the "grand company," which had at this time its headquarters at Châlon-surSaône, and when he arrived there he was introduced at once to the chiefs, the "Green Knight," Hugh Calverly, Matthew de Gournai (another English chief), and many others, who were all seated at table, for it was their hour of dinner. It was "a very rich hostel and of much worth," which the captains occupied; "they had taken possession of it, as I heard tell, and turned out the host, and they were drinking good wine, which they had tapped for themselves." The messenger of Du Guesclin, who was known at once by his livery, was welcomed among the company, and when he demanded a safe-conduct for his lord to come and consult with them, they gave it him immediately and joyfully.

Armed with this protection, Bertrand mounted his horse, till he reached the headquarters of the "grand company." He rode into the midst of the host, and, saluting the chiefs, said: "May God have in His keeping the companions I see here!" The "companions" returned his salutation with profound respect. "If God will," said he, "and you will believe me, I am now come to make you all rich in a very short time." "Sir," they all cried, "you are welcome here, in good truth; we are ready to do all you please, without hesitation." Then he was presented to the knights, and Hugh Calverly, stepping forward, embraced him, and courteously addressed him by the titles of friend and companion. "Nay," said Bertrand du Guesclin, "no one is a companion

of mine, unless he will do whatever I ask him." "Bertrand," said Calverly, "by that God who created the world, my body shall make you good company in whatever manner you direct, and wherever you choose to go, on this side of the sea or the other, to make war upon everybody, except the Prince of Wales; but I will not go against him, for I am bound by an oath, so soon as I see him, to range myself under his banner."

Bertrand then proceeded to unfold to them the object of his journey. He told them that the King of France had sent him to lead them against the Saracens in the East, or against the infidels and the renegade Pedro in Spain; told them that some of the great barons of France were ready to accompany them, and explained to them the profit and glory they would gain in either expedition, and how much better it would be to make war upon infidels and renegades, and cease persecuting and ruining their fellow-Christians. "If you agree to this," he said, "I will pay you, on the part of the King, two hundred thousand florins; I will then lead you to Avignon, where I will obtain for you the Pope's absolution of all the crimes you have committed, and make him pay you handsomely from his treasures; and after that we will continue our journey together."

The great chiefs were unanimous in accepting Bertrand's offer, and they proceeded, under a safe-conduct, to Paris, to complete the treaty. When this agreement was written and sealed, the twenty-five chiefs delivered up their fortresses to the king's officers, and the companions began their march along the Saône and the Rhône towards Avignon. They were joined on the way by the Marshal Arnoul d'Audeneham, and many others of the great lords of France, and King Charles gave them, as their nominal commander, the young Prince Louis of Bourbon, Count of La Marche, the son of Jacques of Bourbon, who had been slain by them in battle at Brignais; but Bertrand du Guesclin had the direction of everything.

When they approached Avignon, the Pope, in great alarm, sent a cardinal to learn what they wanted, with a threat of excommunication, unless they went elsewhere. He was intro