Note 291 — Chapter III · THE KING’S COURT AND HOUSEHOLD.

Three thousand men, all disciplined, all well-armed, all united by the certainty that the struggle must be for life or death, formed a force morally, if not physically and numerically, superior to any that could be brought against them on a sudden. Such a body were amply secure in a state which could only set on foot a clumsy and reluctant militia. They were, in fact, nearly the only professional soldiers,—and as yet there had been no Rocroy, Sempach or Morgarten.