calmly on whilst old men and innocent citizens were brutally slain. In France a bitter hatred arose against the name of Englishman, which has only died out in our own time after 500 years have passed away.

9. The Peace of Bretigny.--Even the better Englishmen themselves felt some shame for the' misery they were causing. Once as their army was marching amongst ruined crops and burnt cottages, the black clouds gathered thickly. The lightning flashed and the thunder pealed. To the English it seemed as if the voice of God was heard in condemnation of their wickedness. Edward made peace with France. By the Treaty of Bretigny a considerable part of France was to be his, and Frenchmen were to pay large sums of money to him.

10. The Labourers.-No one is ever the better for robbery. Englishmen had been in the habit of gaining riches by plunder, and money which is got without hard work is usually spent far too easily. The peace put an end to the chance of robbing Frenchmen, but it did not put an end to the expensive habits which had come to all sorts of people in England. Instead of trying to live more quietly and less extravagantly, Englishmen now began to try to get as much as they could from their neighbours. There was one class of people who suffered much. For a long time the land had been cultivated, not by labourers who work for a certain sum of money, but by serfs, or villeins, as they were then called. These villeins were men who had cottages, and lands of their own to cultivate. At one time they had not been badly off. As there was not much money in

the country, many of them had paid rent not with money, but with work. They had done a certain number of days' work for their landlord instead of giving him a certain number of pounds or shillings.

For some time, however, most of these villeins had paid money instead of working. It was now found that the landlords who had come back from France tried to make the villeins do more work than they had been accustomed to do, and even to make those of them do work who had not been obliged to work for many years.

Besides these villeins there were

in the time of Edward III. a great many free labourers who worked for money as they do now. These, too, were hardly treated and forced to work very hard for very little pay.

11. The Black Death.—Whilst the villeins and labourers were grumbling, a terrible disease swept over England. It was called the Black Death, and caused more destruction than any plague which has since destroyed men. We cannot tell exactly how many died, but it is supposed by some that at least one half of the people perished. This fearful death brought some hope to the serfs and labourers who remained alive. It is true that the rich died as well as the poor; but the land did not die. There was just as much work to be done as before, just as much corn to be reaped or sheep to be shorn, and only half as many reapers or shearers to do it. Instead of a master finding more men than he wanted, he could not find enough. The labourers naturally asked for more money than they had had before, and the villeins finding their work was more wanted, were less inclined to give as much of it as they had given before. The landlords, however, chose members of parliament, and the villeins and labourers did not. The landlords, being in Parliament, made there what laws they pleased. One of the new laws made by them was known as the Statute of Labourers. By it any labourer was to be punished who asked for more wages than he had had before the Black Death. No wonder the labourers were very angry at being cheated in this way. A preacher named John Ball went about telling them not only that they had a right to as much as their