The (jueén of England, who at that time was very big with child, fell on her knees, and, with tears, faid ; € Ah, # gentle fir, fince I have croffed the fèa with great danger, to fee you, I have never aiked you one favour : now, I moft humbly aik m a gift, for the fake of the Son of the blefffd Mary, and for your love to roe, that you will be merciful to thefe fix men/ The king looked at her for fome time in filence, and then faid € Ah, lady, I with you had been any where elfe than here : you have entreated in fuch a manner that I cannot re-fufe you ; I therefore give them to you, to do m you pleafe with them/ The queen conduced the fix citizens to her apartments, and had the halters taken from round their necks, after which the new clothed them, and ferved them with a plentiful din^ nfer : thé then prefefited each with fix nobles, and had them efcorted but of the camp in fafety*. ' ' ' CHAP. * 9 Froiffart aloae among his contemporaries relates this re-markable fa&: and the fimpliclty of his ftyle may give even to fable tlie appearance of trutjî. Edward was generous: he is here represented as a ferocious conqueror, whom love alone éould Xbften, and who obltiuately perlifls to punfth a courage which he ought to have . efteeraed. The action of thefe fix men, thus devoting tbemfelves for their fellow-citizens, was fufficiently great, to have been trumpeted through 'all France by the thoufand and thoufand voices of Fame. This aôion, however, brilliant as Jt was, and which the wretches driven out of Calais would have fpoken of every where, was unknown in the capital. If it bad been otherwife, the Chronicle of St. Denis, and other hjftories of the time, would not have been lient on the fubjeâ; and yet Q 2 sot