ON the evening after the battle of Poitiers a splendid entertainment was served in the tent of the Prince of Wales to the King of France and all the principal prisoners.

John, with his son and six of his highest nobles were seated at a table raised above the rest, and the prince himself waited as page upon the French king.

John in vain endeavoured to persuade the prince to be seated; the latter refused, saying, that it was his pleasure as well as his duty to wait upon one who had shown himself to be the best and bravest knight in the French army.

The example of the Black Prince was contagious, and the English vied with each other in generous treatment of their prisoners.

All were treated as friends, and that night an immense number of knights and squires were admitted to ransom on such terms as had never before been known.