160 
CANNON AT CRESSY. 
later MSS. from which the ordinary editions of the Chronicles have 
been printed. 
In the original account of the battle of Cressy given in the Amiens 
MS. (which will be found in the Appendix of Polands edition of “ Les 
Yrayes Chrociques de Messire Jehan le Bel/' Brussels, 1863, and in 
Lettenhove's edition of Froissart) occurs the following passage :—“ lors 
(les Genevois) prissent leur arbalestres et leur artillerie et s'appar- 
eillierent pour commenchier le bataille . . . Quant li maistres 
des arbalestriers eut ordonne et aroutte les Genevois pour traire, ils 
commenchierent a huer et a juper moult haut, et li Engles tout koy et 
descliquierent aucuns kanons quhls avoient en le bataille, pour esbahir 
les Genevois,”—‘ then the Genoese took their crossbows and apparatus 
and prepared for the light , . . And when their officers had got 
them into shooting-formation, they raised a great shouting. But the 
English (kept) quite quiet, and loosed off* some guns they had with 
them, to frighten the Genoese/ That this reference to cannon was no 
random phrase, written in haste and erased at leisure, is shown by 
the fact that in the “ Abridgement of the Chronicles ” made by 
Froissart himself some years afterwards,! he repeats the assertion in 
slightly different words:—(“ li Engles firent) descliquier deux ou 
trois bonbardiaulx.” J So far from being silent about our guns, then, 
Froissart mentions them in two of his best MSS. distinctly and ration¬ 
ally ; neither exaggerating their number like the “ Istorie Pistolesi,” 
nor exaggerating their effect like the “ Grandes Chroniques de St. 
Denis ” and Villaui. These, however, are among the suppressed 
passages : they are not to be found in any of the latter MSS. 
It may, perhaps, be suggested that Froissart suppressed these pass¬ 
ages, because he found on further enquiry, that they were erroneous. 
Those who offer such a suggestion are bound to make it good; and 
this may be no easy matter, for it is extremely improbable. The 
narrative of Froissart (as he tells us,) is based upon that of Jehan 
le Bel, supplemented by the evidence of eye witnesses. Now le Bel 
does not mention the guns at Cressy. The inference is, therefore, that 
Froissart got his information about them from those who fought there, 
and who could make no possible mistake about so unusual an event. 
So sound, in fact, did he consider his information that when he after¬ 
wards abridged (the first Book of) his Chronicles, he retained the 
statement about the guns. To ask us to believe that after this he dis¬ 
covered his informants were mistaken and their statements untrue, 
makes too great a demand upon our credulity. Froissart supressed 
these and many other passages just about the time when a prepossess¬ 
ion in favour of England and the English took hold of him, and we 
cannot reasonably doubt that this bias was the common cause of their 
* “I lowse, as a gonner lowseth a pece of ordonaunce; Je declique .” J. Palsgrave’s 
“ Lesclarcissement de la langue Francoyse ; ” 1630. 
f “Abr6g6, dont 1’authenticity nous semble incontestable.” Lettenhove’s " Froissart : ” v. I 
pt. 2, p. 149. ' ’ 
t MS. in Bib. Nat., Paris, No. 10,144 j quoted ibid., p. 163. 
