Frenchmen were so mingled among their enemies that sometime there was
five men upon one gentleman. There was taken the lord of Pompadour
and[1] the lord Bartholomew de Burghersh, and there was slain sir
Geoffrey of Charny with the king's banner in his hands: also the lord
Raynold Cobham slew the earl of Dammartin. Then there was a great
press to take the king, and such as knew him cried, 'Sir, yield you,
or else ye are but dead.' There was a knight of Saint-Omer's, retained
in wages with the king of England, called sir Denis Morbeke, who had
served the Englishmen five year before, because in his youth he had
forfeited the realm of France for a murder that he did at
Saint-Omer's. It happened so well for him, that he was next to the
king when they were about to take him: he stept forth into the press,
and by strength of his body and arms he came to the French king and
said in good French, 'Sir, yield you,' The king beheld the knight and
said: 'To whom shall I yield me? Where is my cousin the prince of
Wales? If I might see him, I would speak with him.' Denis answered and
said: 'Sir, he is not here; but yield you to me and I shall bring you
to him. 'Who be you?' quoth the king. 'Sir,' quoth he, 'I am Denis of
Morbeke, a knight of Artois; but I serve the king of England because I
am banished the realm of France and I have forfeited all that I had
there,' Then the king gave him his right gauntlet, saying, 'I yield me
to you,' There was a great press about the king, for every man
enforced him to say,[2] 'I have taken him,' so that the king could not
go forward with his young son the lord Philip with him because of the
press.

[1] This 'and' should be 'by,' but the French text is responsible
for the mistake.

[2] 'S'efforçoit de dire.'