24 The Considerations which determined the Alliance 



ou une recompense anticipee.' I should be more inclined to 

 suppose that it was what lawyers call a refresher, rather than 

 a retainer, seeing that already on July 30 of that year a formal 



were protected by the walls of cities or castles ; everywhere the 

 melancholy traces of the English, and the fresh and horrible scars 

 left by their swords' ('Adolescentulo me, Britanni, quos Anglos sive 

 Anglicos vocant, omnium barbarorum timidissimi habebantur; nunc 

 bellicosissima gens Gallos diu bellica gloria florentes stravit tarn 

 crebris insperatisque successibus, ut qui modo vilibus Scotis impares 

 fuerant, pr?eter miserabilem et indignum summi regis casum, quern 

 sine suspirio meminisse non possum, sic regnum omne igne ferroque 

 contriverint, ut mihi nuper illuc iter ex negotio agenti vix persuaderi 

 posset regnum illud esse quod videram. Sic ubique solitudo infelix 

 et moeror et vastitas ; sic ubique horrida et inculta arva, sic dirutse 

 desertaeque domus, nisi quse cinctse arcium mcenibus aut urbium evasis- 

 sent, sic demum omnibus locis Anglorum moesta vestigia et recentes 

 foedseque cicatrices gladiorum extabant'). 



For the customs and modes of war practised by the English in Italy, 

 see Temple-Leader and Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood, pp. 20, 21, 39-42. 

 The following account is translated from Filippo Villani, chap. 81 {R. I. S. 

 14. 746), and was published in the Bibl. Topograph. Brit. 6 (1790). 43-44: 

 'These English were all lusty young men, most of them born and 

 brought up in the long wars between the French and English; warm, 

 eager, and practised in slaughter and rapine, for which they were 

 always ready to draw their swords, with very little care for their 

 personal safety, but in matters of discipline very obedient to their 

 commanders. However, in their camps or cantonments, through a 

 disorderly and over-daring boldness, they lay scattered about in great 

 irregularity, and with so little caution that a bold, resolute body of 

 men might in that state easily give them a shameful defeat. The 

 armor of almost all were cuirasses, their breasts covered with a steel 

 coat of mail, gauntlets, and armor for the thighs and legs, daggers, 

 and broad swords ; all of them had long tilting-lances, which, after 

 dismounting from their horses, they were very dextrous in handling. 

 Every maij had one or two pages, and some of them more, according 

 to their ability to maintain thern. On taking off their armor, it was 

 •the business of their pages to keep them clean and bright, so that 

 when they came to action their arms shone like looking-glass, and 

 thus gave them a more terrifying appearance. Others among them 

 were archers, their bows long, and made of yew. They were very 

 expert and dextrous in using them, and did great service in action. 

 Their manner of fighting in the field was almost always on foot. 

 The horses were given in charge to the pages. The body they 

 formed was very compact, and almost round; each lance was held 



