EIGHT THOUSAND ROUT SIXTY THOUSAND.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 14, 19 February 1915, Page 3 (Supplement)

EIGHT THOUSAND ROUT SIXTY THOUSAND.

The battle of Poitiers, fought on September 1!), 13.36, is an excellent example of how a clever tactician can hold li's a won against immensely superior forces. Edward the Black Prince had but 8,000 men at Jiis back when King Jolin of France, with an army of 60,000, barred h's path. Tho situat'on seemed hopeless—so hopeless that even the indomitable Prince willingly accepted the offer of mediation mad© by the worthy Cardinal Talleyrand, offering to give up all the castles he had captured, all his prisoners, and to swear not to invade France again for seven years. Tile French king scornfully refused, counting on an easy prey. a nd at 9 a.m. the two opposing armies were drawn up on two oppo, site ridges of rising ground. The Prince showed great military acu, men in choosing bis position, his front being covered by thick hedges, and his centre only approachable by a narrow lane, running between vineyards. The French knights—three hundred of the flower of John's chivalry—came thundering up the lane; but (as at Crecy) they were met by a shower of arrows from the archers, safely posted behind the 1 ledges lining the lane. Horseman after horseman fell, his cuirass pierced by the yard-long shafts of the sharpshooters, till the road was blocked by the bodies of men 'n mail smothered under wounded and struggling horses. Tho vanguard thus thrown into confusion, the English horse swooped down on their riijht flank, while the Black Prince himself attacked tho fee in front. The rout was complete. The French dead were more numerous than tho whole English Army, and the host of prisoners included tne French king himself. Three hours had sufficed for this young warrior of twenty-six (the Black Prince's fame was established at an even earlier age than that of the precocious Xapoleon I.) to defeat an army outnumbering his from ten to one, and to teach Mediaeval chivalry what might lie done by long-range weapons under cover against hitherto irresistible steelclad horsemen.