Note 6 — Chapter III

The loss of this battle seems mainly attributable to the rash and arrogant confidence of the French chevaliers. The general conduct of the crusaders likewise was not such as to warrant any expectation of God’s blessing on their enterprise. Not only did they, at the siege of Raco, refuse quarter to such as laid down their arms, but immediately before the first onset at Nicopolis they massacred a number of Turkish prisoners who had surrendered under promise that their lives should be spared. (Creasy’s History of the Ottoman Turks, vol. i. pp. 58-60.) This act of cruelty, however, has been attributed not to the veteran knights, but to some headstrong and intemperate men among their juniors who took the matter into their own hands. Sutherland, vol. i. p. 309.