The shout was echoed from the wood on the French left, and the archers
there at once plied their bows, and from both flank and front showers of
arrows fell among the French. As originally formed up, the latter's van
should have been covered by archers and cross-bowmen, but, from the
anxiety of the knights and nobles to be first to attack, the footmen had
been pushed back to the rear, a position which they were doubtless not
sorry to occupy, remembering how at Crecy the cross--bowmen had been
trampled down and slain by the French knights, desirous of getting through
them to attack the English. Therefore, there stood none between the
archers and the French array of knights, and the latter suffered heavily
from the rain of arrows. Sir Clugnet de Brabant was the first to take the
offensive, and with twelve hundred men-at-arms charged down upon the
archers with loud shouts. The horses, however, were stiff and weary from
standing so long in order; the deep and slippery ground, and the weight of
their heavily-armed riders caused them to stagger and stumble, and the
storm of arrows that smote them as soon as they got into motion added to
the disorder.
So accurate was the aim of the archers, that most of the arrows struck the
knights on their helmets and vizors. Many fell shot through the brain, and
so terrible was the rain of arrows that all had to bend down their heads
so as to save their faces. Many of the archers, too, shot at the horses;
some of these were killed and many wounded, and the latter swerving and
turning aside added to the confusion.
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