defending the coasts. In 1352, when the French threatened an invasion, Morley was joined in commission with Robert de Ufford, Earl of Suffolk, for arraying the men of Norfolk and Suffolk; in 1355, when there was again danger, he was appointed admiral of the fleet; and, in 1359, when Edward went to France in that expedition which terminated in the treaty of Bretigny, Morley, leaving the decorous Joan, accompanied the King in the hope of fighting the French once more.

But the days of the old hero were numbered. In 1360, while still attending Edward in France, Morley's once strong frame gave way to time and fatigue; and about mid-lent he died, commending his soul to God, and conscious, at least, of having faithfully done his duty to his King and his country.

THE EARL OF PEMBROKE.

ONE day, in the summer of 1372, when Edward the Third, then a gray old man, with three score years on his head, was keeping the feast of St. George at the castle of Windsor, Sir Guiscard D'Angle arrived at the English court and besought the King to send one of his sons to be governor of Poitou.

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But," said Sir Guiscard, "if you cannot send one of your sons, the Poitevins entreat you to send your noble son-in-law, whom they know to be a good and hardy knight."

"John, my fair son," said King Edward, turning to a young man of noble features and patrician figure, “I ordain and institute you governor of Poitou. You will, therefore, accompany Sir Guiscard."

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My Lord," said the young Nobleman on bended knee, "I return you my warmest thanks for the high honour you have conferred on me. I am willing to act for your Majesty beyond seas as one of the smallest of your marshals."

The personage whom King Edward, at the instance of the Poitevins, nominated governor of Poitou, was an Englishman of great name and high rank, who had scarcely attained his twenty-fifth year. His name was John Hastings; and he was Earl of Pembroke.

The ancestor of the Hastings family, according to

genealogists, was that famous old sea king, who after being the terror of the French and English coasts, became towards the close of his life Duke of Chartres, and disappeared under circumstances so mysterious, at the time when Rollo the Norman sailed up the Seine. From the time of the Conquest, the chiefs of his family occupied a conspicuous place among the Anglo-Norman nobility; and at length one of its members espoused Isabel the sister and heiress of Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. This marriage proved favourable to the fortunes of his line; for when Aymer de Valence breathed his last, without male heirs, Laurence Hastings, a grandson of Isabel, was declared Earl of Pembroke. After enacting an honourable part in the wars of his time, and sharing in the great naval victory obtained under the auspices of Morley at Sluys, Laurence departed this life in 1348. About a year before that date, however, he had espoused Agnes, daughter of Roger Mortimer, Earl of March; and, by that lady, left an infant son to inherit his earldom and his possessions.

John Hastings, second Earl of Pembroke, though deprived of his father at an age so early, was carefully nurtured, and, doubtless, educated in all the accomplishments which, in that era of English chivalry, were deemed essential to men of blood and nobility. While still young, he was united in marriage to Margaret, one of Edward's daughters, and regarded by the old King with as much affection as any of his own sons. As years passed over, Pembroke went with his brotherin-law, the Earl of Cambridge, into Aquitaine, where the Black Prince was then struggling with enemies and disease; and, while on the continent, proved his met

tle in a series of adventurous enterprises, which Froissart has faithfully chronicled. Finding himself, on his return to England, deprived by death of his youthful spouse, he married Anne, only daughter of Sir Walter Manny; and the lady had just inherited her patrimonial estates and become mother of an heir to the earldom of Pembroke, when the mission of Sir Guiscard D'Angle to the English court, led to the appointment of her young husband as governor of Poitou.

It did not appear that there was any particular danger in the expedition upon which Pembroke was bound; and it was in a gay mood that the Earl and his companions, having caused ships to be fitted out and men to be mustered, rode from their castles to embark at Southampton. At first their voyage was unpropitious. After waiting fifteen days, however, for a fair wind, they were favoured with one to their heart's content, and set sail for the coast of Poitou. Recommending themselves to God and St. George, they left the shores of England; and on the day preceding the vigil of St. John the Baptist's day, they approached Rochelle.

But at Rochelle, Pembroke found himself face to face with enemies, on whose presence he had not calculated. In fact, the King of France, informed by spies of all that had taken place at Windsor, had resolved that the Earl should have a warm reception; and, with this object, prevailed on Henry of Castille to send such a fleet to the coast of Poitou as should prevent the English from landing. Eager to avenge the defeat inflicted on them many years before by King Edward, the Spaniards fitted out forty ships and thirteen barques, well furnished with towers and equipped

with seamen and foot-soldiers, who had cross-bows, cannons, and large bars of iron, and staves loaded with lead. This armament, placed under the command of Ambrosio de Balequer, Cabesso de Vaccadent, Rodrigo de Rosas, and Hernando de Leon, sailed for Rochelle; and, anchoring before that town, awaited the coming of the English. On seeing Pembroke's little fleet approach, the Spanish Admirals ordered their large ships to make sail so as to gain the wind, and bring their towers to bear with full force on the enemy, whom they had destined to destruction.

When Pembroke saw so many huge ships standing high above the water, with the flag of Castille flying from the mast, ready to dispute the entrance to Rochelle, he must have felt surprise of no agreeable kind. His vessels were small and his men were few compared to his adversaries, and he had so little the advantage in seamanship that he did not quite comprehend the object of the Spaniards in getting the wind in their favour. It was a time at which the English might have exclaimed, "Oh, for one hour of old Morley!" But Morley slept with his fathers; and there was no hope for the English except in the exercise of superhuman valour and endurance.

Encour

Nevertheless, Pembroke was undaunted. aging the English and Poitevins to do their utmost, he prepared for battle, posted archers on the bows of his ships, and gave the signal for action. Ere long, the English and Spaniards met with loud shouts on both sides. Fierce was the shock; terrible was the conflict. The English attacked with the fury of lions; and the Spaniards, hurling huge bars of iron and masses of rock upon their assailants from the towers and ramparts of