St. Valery, and Le Crotoi, in the most evil case and perilous position possible.  But Edward, on arriving at the little town of Oisemont, hard by the Somme, set out in person in quest of the ford he was so anxious to discover.  He sent for some prisoners he had made in the country, and said to them, “right courteously,” according to Froissart, “’Is there here any man who knows of a passage below Abbeville, where-by we and our army might cross the river without peril?’ And a varlet from a neighboring mill, whose name history has preserved as that of a traitor, Gobin Agace, said to the king, ’Sir, I do promise you, at the risk of my head, that I will guide you to such a spot, where you shall cross the River Somme without peril, you and your army.’  ‘Comrade,’ said the king to him, ’if I find true that which thou tellest us, I will set thee free from thy prison, thee and all thy fellows for love of thee, and I will cause to be given to thee a hundred golden nobles and a good stallion.’” The varlet had told the truth; the ford was found at the spot called Blanche-Tache, whither Philip had sent Godemar du Fay with a few thousand men to guard it.  A battle took place; but the two marshals of England, “unfurling their banners in the name of God and St. George, and having with them the most valiant and best mounted, threw themselves into the water at full gallop, and there, in the river, was done many a deed of battle, and many a man was laid low on one side and the other, for Sir Godemar and his comrades did valiantly defend the passage; but at last the English got across, and moved forward into the fields as fast as ever they landed.  When Sir Godemar saw the mishap, he made off as quickly as he could, and so did a many of his comrades.”  The King of France, when he heard the news, was very wroth, “for he had good hope of finding the English on the Somme and fighting them there.  ’What is it right to do now?’ asked Philip of his marshals.  ‘Sir,’ answered they, ’you cannot now cross in pursuit of the English, for the tide is already up.’” Philip went disconsolate to lie at Abbeville, whither all his men followed him.  Had he been as watchful as Edward was, and had he, instead of halting at Airaines “by the ready-set tables which the English had left,” marched at once in pursuit of them, perhaps he would have caught and beaten them on the left bank of the Somme, before they could cross and take up position on the other side.  This was the first striking instance of that extreme inequality between the two kings in point of ability and energy which was before long to produce results so fatal for Philip.