ILLUSTRATIONS.

FRONTISPIECE. Portrait of Bertrand du Guesclin, from a French black-letter history of Du Guesclin.

Young Bertrand du Guesclin at the Tournament. Designed from a contemporary MS.

A Herald reading his Despatches. Drawn from a contemporary MS.

Bertrand du Guesclin fully armed

Attack on the walls of a besieged town.

Page 16

37

41

The cut

45

47

57

shows two forms of the battering-ram in use, for making breaches in the fortifications. Drawn from a contemporary MS.

Accepting of Challenge

Machines used for the defence of stone walls against
the action of battering-rams. From a contemporary MS.
Bertrand du Guesclin at the head of a Free Company.
From a contemporary MS.

Edward the Black Prince and his chief officers. From a French black-letter history of Du Guesclin. Machines used for boring holes in fortified walls, to make openings for the action of the battering-rams. From a contemporary MS.

Druidic Stones at Carnac in Brittany

Howard relieving a Prisoner

Lazaretto at Spezzia

LIFE OF

BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN.

INTRODUCTION.

BERTRAND DU GUESCLIN, the subject of the following pages, was one of the most celebrated among the French warriors of the middle ages. The anecdotes about to be related respecting him, are almost wholly taken from a work entitled "Ancient Memoirs of du Guesclin," which was published in France long after Du Guesclin's age; but is believed to have been compiled from more ancient chronicles.

These anecdotes must not be received as authentic, but they will, it is hoped, be found at least amusing; and may, perhaps, serve to give some idea of the man and his times, by shewing the impression which both left on the minds of his countrymen.

B

CHAPTER I.

YOUTH AND EDUCATION OF BERTRAND DU

GUESCLIN.

THE family of Bertrand du Guesclin was noble, though of small fortune, and resided in the castle of La Motte de Broom, about fifteen miles distant from the town of Rennes, the capital of Britany. Here Bertrand was born in the first quarter of the fourteenth century, but he was an unfortunate child. The extraordinary ugliness of his features, a disagreeable scowling expression of countenance, and, what was far more to be lamented, a rude disposition and violent temper, made him an object of general dislike, and even lessened the affection of his parents. His temper almost as an infant was so bad that his mother thought he had been bewitched, a superstition which prevailed in those times: no doubt he had been ill-managed.