A READER’S MEDLEY

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 103, 25 January 1935, Page 9

A READER’S MEDLEY

A QUEEN BLESSES HER ENEMIES One of the few fine things done in the days when Englishmen had nothing better to do than fight Frenchmen, is linked with the name of Edward the Third’s Queen. Philippa. After the long siege of Calais, the King, at last victorious, was about to commit a crime which would have been an everlasting stain upon the English flag. Philippa made it a shining deed of imperishable fame. It was in the days when pity was often hard to find, and vengeance sometimes reckoned a manly or kingly virtue. Calais was in the hands of the English, "and Edward the Third, angered by the waste of time in taking it, was ready to punish the city. Then came out six men with ropes • round their necks, six of the principal citizens, among them Eustace St. Pierre, begging the king to hang them, but to spare the city. “Go,” cried the king to an officer, “lead these men to execution.” At that moment a sound of trumpets was heard. The Queen had arrived with new forces from England, and Sir Walter'Mauny lost no time in telling her what was' taking place. As soon as Philippa heard of the six men she hastened to the king, and after being welcomed by him said, “My Lord, the question I am to enter upon is not touching the lives of a few mechanics; it respects the honour of the English nation: it respects the glory of my Edward. inv husband, my king. You think you have sacrificed six of your enemies to death. No, my lord, they have sentenced themselves. The.stage on which they would suffer would be to them a stage of honour; but to Ed- fc ward, a stage of shame.” These words flashed conviction on the soul of Edward. “I have done wrong, very wrong!" he exclaimed; “let the execution be instantly stayed, and the captives be brought before us.” St. Pierre and his friends soon made their apnearance; when the Queen thus addressed them: “Natives of France and inhabitants of Calais, you have been sufficiently tried. We loose your chains, and we thank you for that lesson of humiliation which you teach us. when vou .show us that excellence is not of blood, of title, or station.” "Ah, my country 1” exclaimed St. Pierre; “it is now that I tremble for you. .Edward only arms our cities; but Philippa conquers hearts.” AEGIS “The -guarantee of peace which has been gained by the decision is further enhanced by the previous inclination of the parties to come to a friendly understanding under the AEGIS of a League committee,” says a c< mmentafor on the Saar decision. The word means literally, “one covered with goat-skin.” In classic mythology it meant the shield of Jupiter. “The dreadful AEGIS, Jove's immortal shield," wrote Alexander Pope. Later it came to mean a short cloak (not as most modern poets represent it, a shield) worn by Minerva It was set with the Gorgoffis head and fringed with snakes. It is now used in the sense, of protection or support.