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 ROWE
CROSSAN
MAURER
ROUSE
S T R AT E G I C A N A LY S I S
NINTH EDITION

S T R AT E G I C
A N A LY S I S
AND A C T I O N

ACTIONAND
ISBN: 978-0-13-337029-4
EDITION
NINTH

www.pearsonhighered.com 9 780133 370294 MARY M. CROSSAN • MICHAEL J. ROUSE

W. GLENN ROWE • CARA C. MAURER
 5 Environment Analysis: The Strategy–Environment Linkage 88
Conducting Environment Analysis 88
Step 1: Focus the Environment Analysis 88
Performance Assessment as a Focusing Tool 90
The Strategic Proposal as a Focusing Tool 91
Jantzen Technologies: A Case Study 91
The Profit Model as a Focusing Tool 93
Defining the Right Time Horizon 95
Minimizing the Risks of Focus 96
Step 2: Test the Strategy–Environment Linkage 98
Demand 99
Supply 102
Competition 103
Government 105
First Check for Fit or Recycle 108
Step 3: Forecast Performance 109
Step 4: Rank against Other Proposals 110
Summary 110
Notes 111

6 Resource Analysis: The Strategy–Resource Linkage 112

The Nature of Resources 112
Other Characterizations of Resources 114
Resources and Competitive Advantage 116
The Dual Role of Resources 119
The Constraining Role of Resources 119
The Driving Role of Resources 120
Resource Analysis 120
Step 1: Identify Resource Requirements 123
Step 2: Test the Strategy–Resource Linkage 123
Recycling 126
Step 3: Develop Gap-Closing Analysis 126
Step 4: Move to the Next Step in the Diamond-E Analysis 128
Dynamic Resources 128
Resources and the Scope of the Firm 129
Summary 129
Notes 130

7 Management Preference Analysis: The Strategy–Management

Preference Linkage 132
Value Creation, Capture, and Distribution 132
Reconciling Stakeholder Interests 133
Corporate Governance 134
Corporate Social Responsibility 137

Contents vii

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 Management as a Key Stakeholder 138
Inconsistency between Proposed and Preferred Strategy 138
Inconsistency between Preferred Strategy and Other Realities 139
The Role of Management Preferences 140
The Roots of Strategic Preference 141
Personal Attributes 141
Character 142
Competencies 143
Job Context 146
Frozen Preference 147
Implications 149
Matching Preferences and Strategy 149
Step 1: Identify the Required Management Preferences 151
Step 2: Test the Strategy–Preferences Linkage 152
Step 3: Develop Gap-Closing Analysis 152
Framing the Gap-Closing Issues—Individual Managers 153
Gap-Closing Actions and Risks—Individual Managers 154
Framing the Gap-Closing Issues—Groups of Managers 155
Management Preferences and Competitive Analysis 157
Summary 158
Notes 159

8 Strategy and Organization 161

Organizational Capabilities 163
Behaviour 166
Culture 167
Step 1: Identify Required Organizational Capabilities 169
Step 2: Identify Capability Gaps 171
Step 3: Develop New Organizational Capabilities 172
Organization Structure 173
Functional Structure 173
Product Organization 175
Geographic Structure 176
Matrix 178
Cellular 178
Strategic Alliances 180
Choosing a Structure 181
Management Processes 182
Decision-Making Processes 182
Operating Processes 184
Performance Assessment and Reward Processes 185
Leadership Behaviour 186
Do You Have the Right Leaders? 187
Using All Three Leverage Points 188
Step 4: Assess Feasibility 188

viii Contents

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 Summary 190
Notes 191

9 Strategic Choice 193

Strategy as a Dynamic Process 194
Setting Direction 194
Focusing Effort 194
Defining the Organization 194
Providing Consistency 194
Strategy as Planning 196
Strategy as Learning 199
Cognitive Biases 200
Organizational Learning and Strategic Renewal 203
Reconciling the Tensions in Strategic Renewal 205
Leadership for Strategic Renewal 207
The Practical Matter of Strategic Choice at a Point of Time 209
Summary 211
Notes 211

10 Implementing Strategy: Change Agenda and Starting

Conditions 214
Types of Strategic Change 215
Strategic Decline 216
Leadership Style 217
Implementing Strategic Change 218
The Change Plan 219
Change Agenda 220
Analysis of Starting Conditions 220
Need for Change: The Crisis Curve 221
Crisis Change 223
Anticipatory Change 225
Reactive Change 227
Organizational Readiness for Change 229
Target Group Identification 229
Target Group Readiness 230
Personal Readiness for Change 232
The View From Below 234
Summary 235
Notes 235

11 Implementing Strategy: Guidelines and Action 238

Establishing Guidelines for Action 238
Priority Objectives 238
Behavioural versus Non-Behavioural Objectives 239

Contents ix

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 Action Priorities 240
Adopters and Resistors 241
Picking Starting Points for Action 244
Focus versus Scope 245
Leadership Style 246
Directive Leadership 246
The Participative Style 248
Pace 249
Implementing Pace Decisions 250
Generic Guidelines 250
Crisis Change 251
Anticipatory Change 252
Reactive Change 255
Creating an Action Plan 257
Monitoring Performance 258
Summary 259
Notes 259

Index 262

x Contents

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 Preface

This book was written to complement case analysis in university and company strategic
management courses. It takes the point of view of the general manager and presents a con-
sistent, operational approach to analyzing and acting on strategic problems. Our intent
is to introduce you to the breadth of material in strategic management, yet enable you to
apply it in a decision-making process. In doing so, we venture beyond current strategic
management texts to help reconcile the diversity, breadth, and complexity of the field.
As we point out in Chapter 1, general managers run businesses and other types of
organizations, and, while their responsibility may be for a small business, a not-for-profit,
public sector, or large corporation, they face the common challenge of guiding their orga-
nizations to success in competitive environments. The aim of this book is to develop the
basic general management skills required to understand a business organization, sense the
opportunities and problems that it faces, deal effectively with strategic decisions, and to
set in place the people, structures, and operations to implement those decisions. We
refer to this as the general management perspective and, as we describe in Chapter 1, it
applies to any person in the organization, not just the general manager. Having a general
management perspective requires a disposition to lead, and therefore having a general
management perspective is consistent with concepts such as strategic leadership and
cross-enterprise leadership.
In preparing the text materials, we have concentrated on analytic concepts that con-
tribute to a practical understanding of specific strategic issues and to the translation of this
understanding into personal action. Further, we have linked these discrete concepts into
a comprehensive framework—the Diamond-E framework—to ensure that the whole of
the situation facing the business is appreciated and that priorities are set for both analysis
and action.
We have made two assumptions about our readers. First, we have assumed that
they are engaged in trying to solve strategic problems—as students of business doing
case analyses or field projects, or as managers on the job. Application and practice are
the prime vehicles for understanding the power and limitations of the concepts in this
text and, more importantly, for developing general management skills. Second, we have
assumed that our readers possess a basic understanding of the background disciplines and
functional areas of business, such as the financial analysis and marketing skills provided
in early courses in university business programs.

APPROACH
The point of view we take on strategic issues is that of a general manager. We assume
that you are willing to share this perspective—to see yourself as responsible for the over-
all direction and success of an organization or business unit. As a general manager, you
must think in comprehensive terms of the total problem you are dealing with, taking
into account the full breadth of its meaning and consequences for the business. Partial

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 analyses from a specialist or a functional perspective may be helpful, but they do not meet
the general manager’s need for the best overall approach to a situation. In addition to the
broad issues of direction, you must worry about the specific steps of execution—about
closing the gaps between strategic choice and practical, personal action. Again, the rec-
ommendations of a consultant or staff specialist may be useful, but their advice will usually
address only the directional aspects of the general manager’s concerns. In short, we ask
you to step into a particularly challenging position in which you must think of problems
in terms of a total business, set priorities, and plan for tangible, practical action.
Three threads weave their way through the fabric of the text: value, advantage, and
globalization. General managers are fundamentally charged with the responsibility of
guiding their organizations to create and capture value with an eye to how that value is
distributed among various stakeholders, including shareholders. Our perspective is that
organizations are mechanisms invented by society to generate value that individuals can-
not generate on their own. The value that organizations generate takes many forms (e.g.,
profit, jobs, self-actualization, goods, and services), and different organizations generate
different types of value. All organizations, however, must generate value—that is the
reason they exist.
Organizational growth or even survivability depends not merely on the generation of
value; businesses must also have comparative or competitive advantage. Why should cus-
tomers buy your valuable product or service rather than another firm’s? As a general man-
ager, you must ensure that your value-generating organization has competitive advantages.
Thirdly, today’s environments are global. Very few industries are not impacted in
some meaningful way by global forces. We deal with some specific issues related to global
diversification strategies, but a basic assumption that we hold, and that we encourage you
to consider as a general manager, is that globalization is no longer a separate, optional
consideration. Globalization is a fundamental element for strategic analysis and action.
Understanding that the role of the general manager has changed in recent years,
we have chosen to underscore this change with the term “Cross-Enterprise Leadership.”
We summarized these changes, and the distinctions between the general manager and
the Cross-Enterprise Leader in an Ivey Business Journal article. There, we concluded that
the forces of globalization, rapid change, and time-based competition had redefined the
role of the general manager and that organizations, as single entities controlling their own
fate, had been supplanted by networks and alliances of enterprises.

Whereas general management focused on integrating the various functions within an

organization, the business imperative today requires an approach—Cross-Enterprise
Leadership—that can create, capture and distribute value across a network of
companies, not just within a company. Second, these networks, which we call
enterprises, are complex and dynamic, and must be able to respond as a whole to
the emergent challenges that are continually presented. Third, no one leader can
“manage” the enterprise, and therefore leadership needs to be distributed. Finally,
these changes require an approach to leadership over-and-above that possessed by
traditional business leaders. At its core, Cross-Enterprise Leadership recognizes that
managers operate in a complex world in which the boundaries of organizations are
fluid and dynamic, cutting across functional designations, departments, business
units, companies, geography and cultures.1

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 That value is created cross-enterprise is demonstrated by Coca-Cola and Nestlé,
who are competitors in bottled water and several beverage categories around the world.
But in North America, Coca-Cola is the primary distributor for Nestlé’s Nestea product.
Toshiba reduces its shipping costs by having UPS undertake repairs of Toshiba prod-
ucts, and Singapore-based Flextronics undertakes design and manufacturing services for
companies in the automotive, industrial, medical, and technology sectors. Health care
networks have become a necessary means to deliver on health care needs. While we take
the organization as the primary focus, our perspective acknowledges that the boundaries
of the organization are often blurry, and models of strategy need the flexibility to take
this into account.
For the purpose of this book, we will retain the term “general manager”; however,
our view of the role of the general manager has changed, and these changes are reflected
in the materials presented. The choice and presentation of material in the book have
been guided by experience and practical utility. Our aim has been to provide useful tools
organized into one consistent and comprehensive framework. Our intent is to present the
diversity and complexity of the field but distill it so that it can be applied in a decision-
making process. Additional readings are suggested, where appropriate, at the end of chap-
ters for those who wish to explore specific subjects in greater depth.
Throughout the book, we have frequently used examples to make the connection
between the concepts, which have to be somewhat general for flexibility and breadth of
application, and specific strategic issues. As you read, you might find it useful to think
of examples from your own experience and test the applicability of the concepts against
them.

ORGANIZATION
The book is organized according to a general pattern: problem identification to analysis to
decision to execution. This is a natural, logical sequence and is effective for the cumula-
tive presentation of concepts. But we do not mean to imply that actual strategic problems
can be dealt with in such a neat, serial fashion. On the contrary, most strategic problems
require an iterative approach, in which the analysis moves back and forth between choice
and action. This point will become evident as you read through the book. Its immediate
application, however, is that you should not expect to find business situations, or case
problems describing them, that neatly conform to the flow of the text.
Throughout the book we use the terms business, organization, and firm interchange-
ably. Whether considering a not-for-profit or for-profit organization, a small entrepre-
neurial firm or a large multi-national, a public or private sector enterprise, the concepts
apply to all types of organizations. If there is a particular distinction to be made for a
specific type of organization, such as a not-for-profit, we will flag it. However, these
instances will be rare as the fundamentals of strategy apply to all types of organizations
in all geographic contexts.
There are 11 chapters in the book. Chapters 1 and 2 position the concept of strategy
as a crucial general management tool and then provide an operational understanding and
definition of it. Chapter 3 introduces the Diamond-E framework and the fundamental
logic of strategic analysis. Chapters 4 through 8 elaborate on the processes of analysis by

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 working through the individual components of the Diamond-E framework with a view to
building a comprehensive position on strategic needs and priorities. Chapter 9 discusses
the dynamic nature of strategy, providing a transition to Chapters 10 and 11, which
concentrate on developing personal action plans to move from the analytic results to the
implementation of strategic changes.

SUGGESTIONS FOR USE

At the outset, we suggest that you read Chapters 1 through 3 thoroughly. This will pro-
vide a perspective for your thinking and a basic framework for your analysis. Skim the rest
of the book so that you know where to turn as specific circumstances dictate.
As you deal with problems, use the book selectively. Try to work back and forth
between the problem that you are addressing and the relevant parts of the book. Use the
concepts to check your analysis and, as necessary, to expand it. Common sense is very
important here. Do not try to force the concepts and procedures on a problem; instead
use them to enrich the analysis.
Study the book after you have spent some time working on strategic problems. At
that point, you will more readily appreciate the general analytical approach and see the
applicability of particular concepts. From then on, the building of skills in strategic analy-
sis and action is a matter of practice and more practice. Remember, you are dealing with
the most complex problems in business. Good luck!

NEW TO THIS EDITION

The first edition of this book was published in 1986. In revising it for this ninth edition,
we have updated both the examples and recent theory that support the practical and user-
friendly aspects of the eighth edition.
Many of the changes in theory and practice in recent years have been toward frag-
mentation of concepts and pitting one approach against another. We have found this to
be counter-productive. For example, emphasizing a dynamic approach to strategy does not
negate the importance of understanding strategic positioning at a point in time. Thus,
in this edition, we have tried to make connections between concepts that have become
increasingly fragmented or polarized.
Throughout the many editions, our consistent aim has been to increase the relevance
of the materials for solving general management problems in the field or in the form of
written cases.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Our primary acknowledgment goes to Nick Fry and Peter Killing, who launched
the first edition in 1986 and who continued as authors through the years into their
retirement. They provided a vision and platform that has stood the test of time in
its ability to anticipate and adapt to changes in both research and practice. Indeed,
virtually all advances in the field of strategy have been easily accommodated within

xiv Preface

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 the approach they imagined. We are grateful for their leadership in resisting some
early moves in academia and practice away from a general management perspective to
treating strategy as a technical competence. The shortcomings of that approach are
apparent—strategy and leadership are tightly intertwined. We are grateful that as Nick
and Peter have retired from the book, Cara Maurer and Glenn Rowe have joined the
author team.
We have been fortunate to work for many years in institutions that value good
teaching and professional relevance. These cultural attributes have been developed and
reinforced by many people. In all editions, we have benefited from the new ideas and
continuing support of our colleagues in the university and in the private sector. We
would particularly like to acknowledge our immediate colleagues at the Ivey Business
School and at IMD who, over the years, have included professors Jay Anand, Tima
Bansal, Paul Beamish, Oana Branzei, Laurence Capron, the late Harold Crookell, Jim
Dowd, Tony Frost, Michael Geringer, Louis Hébert, Gerald Higgins, Amy Hillman,
Bryan Hong, Ariff Kachra, Mike Levenhagen, Peter Lorange, Pat MacDonald, Alan
Morrison, Eric Morse, Charlene Nicholls-Nixon, Tom Poynter, Paul Strebel, Don Thain,
Stewart Thornhill, Jean-Philippe Vergne, Rod White, Mark Zbaracki, Laurina Zhang,
and Charlene Zietsma.
We are also extremely grateful to the following reviewers for their comments and
suggestions: Wael Ramadan, Sheridan College; Natalie Slawinski, Memorial University
of Newfoundland; Jianyun Tang, Memorial University of Newfoundland; Bob Thompson,
Seneca College.
We are indebted to our publisher, Pearson Canada, and, in particular, Kathleen
McGill, Madhu Ranadive, and Alanna Ferguson for their help in producing and promoting
this book. At Ivey, we are obliged to Nicole Haney for her tremendous organizational and
administrative support.
Mary M. Crossan,
Michael J. Rouse,
Cara C. Maurer,
W. Glenn Rowe
London, Ontario

SUPPLEMENTS
Test Item File (ISBN 978-0-13-430808-1)
This test bank in Microsoft Word format includes over 300 questions. There are
approximately 55 questions per chapter, including multiple choice and true/false. The
Test Item File is available for download from a password-protected section of Pearson
Canada’s online catalogue. Navigate to your book’s catalogue page to view a list of
those supplements that are available. See your local sales representative for details
and access.

Preface xv

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 Learning Solutions Managers
Pearson’s Learning Solutions Managers work with faculty and campus course designers to
ensure that Pearson technology products, assessment tools, and online course materials
are tailored to meet your specific needs. This highly qualified team is dedicated to helping
schools take full advantage of a wide range of educational resources, by assisting in the
integration of a variety of instructional materials and media formats. Your local Pearson
Canada sales representative can provide you with more details on this service program.

Notes
1. Crossan, M., Olivera, F. “Cross-Enterprise Leadership: A New Approach for the 21st
Century,” Ivey Business Journal, May June, 2006.

xvi Preface

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 Chapter 1
A General Management Perspective

A general manager is someone who has responsibility for all functional facets of the busi-
ness. General managers run businesses and organizations of all kinds, such as for-profit
businesses and public sector and not-for-profit organizations.1 A fundamental challenge
facing general managers today stems from the fact that the external environment in which
their organization operates—which includes current customers, potential customers, com-
petitors, technological innovation, government, suppliers, global forces, and so on—is
changing so rapidly that the firm, with its finite resources and limited organizational capa-
bilities, is hard pressed to keep up. Keep up it must, however, because in a rapidly chang-
ing environment, sticking with yesterday’s strategy, no matter how successful it may have
been, is often a recipe for tomorrow’s disaster.
Although the general manager holds a particular position in the organization, any
individual in a functional position can also have a general management perspective, and
we argue that having one will assist employees throughout the organization. A general
management perspective means having the capacity to understand and to appreciate issues
facing individuals who are placed in the specific role of a general manager. Often, strategic
decisions require difficult trade-offs. To the degree that employees understand why deci-
sions have been made and what needs to be done, personal performance and organizational
performance will be enhanced. A general management perspective also helps you to iden-
tify relevant data, information, and knowledge that are important to strategic analysis and
action. Strategic decisions need to draw on the collective intelligence of the workforce.
We view having a general management perspective as consistent with having a stra-
tegic leadership perspective or cross-enterprise leadership perspective. Strategy requires
both the disposition to lead and the capacity to manage across the enterprise. Yet the
general manager does not act in isolation. Throughout the text we refer to the general
manager, with the intention of including all persons seeking to develop a general manage-
ment perspective.

THE JOB OF THE GENERAL MANAGER

The job of the general manager is to create, capture, and appropriately distribute value for
the enterprise. As a general manager you need to recognize emerging opportunities and chal-
lenges, prepare a response, and ensure the success of whatever plan of action you decide upon.

M01_CROS0294_09_SE_C01.indd 1 28/09/15 4:16 PM

 By way of example, consider the rapidly changing competitive situation in the con-
sumer smartphone industry over the last few years. This is an industry that has grown
rapidly and undergone rapid innovation. BlackBerry, a company that had a dominant
position in the enterprise smartphone market, entered the consumer smartphone market
to increase its revenues and market share. As an early entrant in the industry it initially
had good success capturing higher market share each year. But this came at the cost of
reduced margins, which the co-CEO at the time, Jim Balsillie, described as a deliberate
strategy of a “land grab.” He knew they would sacrifice margins for several years, but felt
that they needed to sacrifice financial performance to claim space in the segment as a
basis for future growth.2
While BlackBerry’s smartphone devices offered a superior email experience, the
release of Apple’s iPhone in 2007 started chipping away at BlackBerry’s market share. By
the second quarter of 2011, Apple had achieved the top position in the smartphone space,
while BlackBerry was in fourth place, with a market share that had declined over the
previous year. What was even more worrisome was the fact that BlackBerry was behind
the curve in its response to Apple’s release of the iPad, and when BlackBerry did release
a competitive product, the market response was tepid and disparaging due to high defect
rates and insufficient functionality. What had gone wrong? How could a company that
had held a leading position in the enterprise smartphone market come up so short in
the consumer segment? Many analysts pinned the failure to BlackBerry’s capabilities and
resources that, while finely honed to understand and lead the enterprise market, did not
seem to understand the needs of the consumer market; BlackBerry was therefore slow to
react to changes in the market, let alone lead it.
After establishing a long-term direction and creating the strategy, the general manager’s
work is not done. In fact, the most difficult part is just beginning. While BlackBerry’s co-CEOs
established long-term direction and created the strategy early on, not enough was done to
develop the capability to allow the organization to provide leadership in both the enter-
prise and consumer market. Capabilities that were deemed superior in BlackBerry’s highly
protected enterprise market were inadequate in the far-more-competitive consumer market.
Further, BlackBerry lacked many capabilities required for success in consumer products.
This example illustrates three of the fundamental components of the general
manager’s job: setting direction, creating strategy, and implementing change. One further
crucial aspect of the job, shown in Figure 1.1, is assessing performance—both current and
longer term. Without a good feel for how well the organization is performing at any point
in time, a general manager could get the other three components of the job very wrong.
Emphasizing lofty but distant goals when the company may not survive the coming year
could lead to disaster; acting as if there is a crisis when a slower pace of change would be
more appropriate can be just as damaging.
A competent general manager will perform all four of these tasks. The tasks will not
be addressed sequentially or in isolation from each other, but as a continuously changing
mix of activities. The double-headed arrows in Figure 1.1 are intended to convey this
interconnectedness.

2 Chapter 1 A General Management Perspective

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 Setting Direction
vision
mission
values

Assessing Creating Strategy

General
Performance determining the way
Manager
today and tomorrow forward

Implementing
Change
making it happen

Figure 1.1 The Job of the General Manager

The primary focus of this book is on the processes and tools you will need for creat-
ing strategy and managing strategic change. Before you embark on the strategy-making
process you need to make sure that you know your starting position, which means that you
need a solid assessment of current performance. You also need a high-level view of what
you are trying to achieve, which will be captured in your vision, mission, and values. In
the remainder of this chapter we address these topics.

ASSESSING PERFORMANCE
We begin with a discussion of performance assessment because the general manager who
is not skilled at this task will have great difficulty with other aspects of the job. Many
corporate tragedies are rooted in the fact that senior managers had a false idea of how
well their organization was performing. Take, for example, McDonald’s, which in 2003
announced its first-ever quarterly loss since becoming a public company in 1965. As a
franchisor, McDonald’s collects royalties that amount to four percent of sales. However,
it is also a real estate company that owns the land and buildings of many of its franchised
locations, with rental income amounting to about 10 percent of sales. McDonald’s focused
on rental income from real estate, which prompted expansive growth. At the same time,
McDonald’s lost sight of deteriorating measures of performance such as same-store sales,
which had been stagnant for a decade, and customer service, where it had ranked last in
the fast-food industry since 1994. To turn things around, management had to reverse its
strategy by dramatically reducing the number of store openings worldwide and, instead,
focus its attention on attracting more customers to existing stores. The results were

Assessing Performance 3

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 Table 1.1 Typical Measures of Operating Performance
Profitability Financial Position Market Performance
• Profit margins • Leverage ratios (debt/equity, • Absolute level and
(gross and operating) interest coverage) growth rate in sales
• Key expense ratios • Liquidity ratios (units, revenue) • Market share
• Return on equity, • Activity ratios (e.g., asset and • New products as %
assets inventory turnover) of sales
• Economic value added

impressive. In 2010, McDonald’s had achieved growth in same-store sales for eight con-
secutive years. From 2003 to 2010, revenues increased by 40 percent and net income more
than tripled. By 2015 performance was lagging expectations and once again management
reviewed avenues for improvement including a restructuring intended to make them more
nimble and responsive to competition.
There are many approaches to take to size up performance, and each industry
and company will have its own metrics based on key performance drivers. For a useful
approach to creating multiple performance measures, see Robert Kaplan and David
Norton’s “Balanced Scorecard.”3 Our assessment of organizational performance is based
on two sets of measures: operating performance and organizational health. Operating perfor-
mance includes the “hard” or more quantitative measures of financial and market perfor-
mance. Some typical measures of operating performance are included in Table 1.1. In any
given situation some of these measures may be more important than others. Whatever
your circumstances, beware of relying on only a single measure of operating performance,
or on solely internal measures.
Measures of organizational health are generally “softer” and more qualitative than those
of operating performance, and include such things as management and worker enthusiasm,
the ability to work across boundaries, the ability of the organization to learn, employee
satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and supplier relationships.4 These and other factors are
described in Table 1.2. Again, you might put more emphasis on some of these factors than
others as you are assessing the health of your organization, but here, too, we recommend
that you focus on more than a single measure, and assess how these factors change over time.
The danger that many senior management teams face is that they think they know
where the business stands in terms of organizational health, when often they do not.
This could be due to several reasons: negative feedback to upper-level managers may be
implicitly or explicitly discouraged; middle managers may choose to filter out information
before it reaches the upper echelons; or senior managers may simply not listen well. One
response used by many firms has been to conduct anonymous employee surveys on a large
scale to try to get a realistic assessment of these measures. Another method is to obtain
360-degree feedback from staff on members of the senior management team. We are aware
of one CEO who did this and who discovered that he was not a very good listener.

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 Table 1.2 Typical Measures of Organizational Health
Enthusiasm Boundaries Problem Solving Learning Sustainability
How Do individuals Are problem Does the Can the pace
enthusiastic identify areas identified organization at which
are managers with narrow and dealt with learn from its people are
and employees sub-groups or hidden and experiences? working be
about their or with the ignored? From others’ sustained?
work? organization experiences?
as a whole?

It is also important to recognize that the drivers of performance for any company or
industry are often interrelated in important ways, with both key leading and lagging indi-
cators. For example, a fast-food chain developed a causal model that proposed the drivers
of strategic success. They found that selection and staffing choices impacted employee sat-
isfaction, which in turn affected the value that employees were able to add to the business.
Employee value-added service affected customer satisfaction, which affected customer
buying behaviour, profitability, and overall shareholder value.5

Using the Performance Matrix

We use the performance matrix to classify operating performance and organizational health
as roughly positive or negative and ask three questions: (1) where was your business three
years ago, (2) where is it today, and (3) in which direction is it currently moving? Our main
emphasis is on the current position of the business, but a discussion of this naturally leads
to consideration of where the business has been and which way it is moving. In Figure 1.2
we have illustrated the hypothetical case of a business that has moved from Quadrant 2
(Q2) through Q4 and is currently in Q3, hoping to move upward to Q1.

Quadrant 2 Quadrant 1

+ complacent desired
Organizational Health

organization state
three years
ago tomorrow?

today
troubled
– crisis
organization

Quadrant 4 Quadrant 3
– +
Operating Performance
Figure 1.2 The Performance Matrix (with illustrative example)

Assessing Performance 5

M01_CROS0294_09_SE_C01.indd 5 28/09/15 4:16 PM

 Clearly, the desired state is Quadrant 1, in which operating performance and orga-
nizational health are both positive. If your analysis suggests that your business is in this
quadrant, and you expect it to stay there, your strategy review will probably be a question
of fine tuning, and perhaps taking a farther-than-usual look into the future. But do not
take the strategy assessment process lightly. You need to ensure that you have placed your-
self in this quadrant as a result of thorough analysis, not complacency or wishful thinking.
The picture in Quadrant 2, on the other hand, may be of an inward-looking and
self-satisfied organization where people enjoy their work but collectively are performing
inadequately in terms of market and financial standards. There may be recognition by a
few that there is a need to change, but getting a meaningful strategic review underway
may be difficult, as currently happy employees will not want to face the prospect of mak-
ing uncomfortable changes to improve operating performance.
In Quadrant 3 the business is achieving its operating objectives at the expense of
organizational health. This may arise because management has applied pressure to obtain
short-term profits, often via downsizing, without upgrading the skills of their people.
Management also may have given little thought to the processes by which work should be
done. It is a classic case of doing the same work with fewer people, and everyone burns out.
Quadrant 4 represents a clear-cut problem situation in which immediate and com-
prehensive action is necessary. It may well be a crisis; if so, strategic analysis had better be
fast. Shortcuts may have to be taken, but our hope is that if your firm is in crisis a quick
look through this book will at least help you decide where to start, and which parts of the
strategy creation process will quickly yield the most value to you and your business team.
In later chapters we will discuss other perspectives on performance. In Chapter 5,
for example, we will ask you to predict the likely performance of your business if it con-
tinues with its existing strategy; this is your “base case” scenario. In the last two chapters
of the book, which deal with the management of change, we will discuss the crisis curve
concept, which involves tracing the past, current, and projected future performance of a
business to determine the urgency for change.
We now turn to another task of the general manager that needs to be considered before
we turn to strategic analysis: that of establishing the overall direction for the business.

SETTING DIRECTION: VISION, MISSION, VALUES

Organizations need a strong sense of direction—a vision—to bring coherence to the many
strategic and operating decisions that managers at all levels are constantly called upon
to make. There are three basic reasons for starting strategic analysis with work on vision-
ing. The first is to resolve confusion over the purpose of the business: why it exists. For
example, visioning is often most visibly used in family-owned companies, when disagree-
ments arise among the family shareholders over such issues as dividend income or family
employment. Other examples are found in newly privatized enterprises that now have to
decide on fundamental objectives and whom they are to serve. All organizations need a
clear sense of what and who they are.

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 The second reason for developing or changing a company’s vision is to revitalize it.
In 2007 Apple dropped “Computer” from its name, signalling a shift to make Macs a hub
in a networked world of digital devices. Fortune magazine described CEO Steve Jobs as
having

… exercised his increasing power with the facility of a jujitsu master. Consider: He
elbowed aside the likes of Sony to change the dynamics of consumer electronics with
the iPod. He persuaded the music industry, the television networks, and Hollywood to
let him show them how to distribute their wares in the Digital Age with the iTunes
Music Store. He employed the arch austerity of his hugely successful Apple Stores to
give the big-box boys a lesson in high-margin, high-touch retailing. And this year, at
the height of his creative and promotional powers, Jobs orchestrated Apple’s over-the-
top entry into the cellular telephone business with the iPhone, a lozenge of glass and
aluminum encasing a do-everything digital device.6

Finally, you might decide to prepare a mission statement when your business is oper-
ating reasonably well, and you think that creating one may help to reinforce your existing
informal “sense of vision.” You could also see it as a public relations exercise that helps
better present the business to shareholders, customers, or regulators.
The challenge in developing a vision is to simultaneously raise people’s sights,
give them direction, and stay realistic. While it usually helps to formalize agreements
about vision, mission, and values in an explicit mission statement, the existence of a
formal statement may actually mean very little; the critical factor is whether the vision
has permeated the organization. Achieving a powerful sense of mission depends very
heavily on the day-to-day decisions and actions of an organization’s leaders. People
look to actions, not words, for guidance. If a purpose like “to be the best and most
successful company in the airline business” is to have real motivating power and direc-
tional meaning, then the actions of senior management in everything from investment
decisions for aircraft to the budgets for cleaning cabins had better be consistent with
that vision.
There are many frameworks and references on the subject of vision, mission, and
values. A list of references is provided at the end of this chapter. One pair of research-
ers, James Collins and Jerry Porras, studied highly successful companies and found that
what they had in common was an enduring set of core values and purpose, unique to
each company, that remain fixed even though their business strategies evolved over
time.7
The Collins and Porras framework is a good example since it is based on solid
research, yet provides a practical approach for applying the concepts. Collins and Porras
state that “at the broadest level, vision consists of two major components—a Guiding
Philosophy that, in the context of expected future environments, leads to a Tangible
Image.”8
In the Collins and Porras framework, the guiding philosophy includes the core pur-
pose and core values of the organization. The core purpose and core values need to be

S e t t i n g D i r e c t i o n : V i s i o n , M i s s i o n , Va l u e s 7

M01_CROS0294_09_SE_C01.indd 7 28/09/15 4:16 PM

 translated into a tangible image in the form of a mission and a vivid description of that
mission. Whereas environmental analysis plays a pivotal role in the case of strategy, in
the case of vision it plays more of a moderating role in translating purpose into mission.
Aspiration plays a stronger role with vision such that there is a fine line between the
possible and impossible. Although Collins and Porras advocate that strategic analysis
should be done after the vision and mission-setting process, this is rarely the case. The
practical matter is that vision and strategy operate in tandem as we discuss later in this
chapter.

Guiding Philosophy
The guiding philosophy has two elements, the core purpose and the core values. The core
values are the starting point for the guiding philosophy.
Values Values represent the basic beliefs that govern individual and group behaviour
in an organization. These may be brief and highly abstract, or much more detailed and
specific. Coca-cola talks about spreading optimism and happiness, providing a refreshing
experience, making a difference, and adding value. They aspire to achieve this by their
seven rules:Leadership, Collaboration, Integrity, Accountability, Passion, Diversity and
Quality. While many organizations may share these types of values, the expression and
application can be quite different. For example, when it comes to the value of collabora-
tion Coca-Cola focuses on being able to “leverage collective genius” and they want their
leadership to have “the courage to shape a better future”.9
Of course, the real test is whether a company lives its values. For example, Starbucks
has a set of values that include providing a great work environment and embracing
diversity. Starbucks backs up its values by treating its associates better than the industry
standard. This can be seen in the employee stock plan, benefits, a first-class working envi-
ronment, heavy investment in training, and other practices.
It is not surprising that Starbucks demonstrates these values since they are strongly
held by its CEO, Howard Schultz. Schultz was deeply affected by the experiences of his
father, whom he has described as a broken-down blue collar worker who was not valued
or respected by his employers, and became very bitter as a result. Schultz was commit-
ted to ensuring that Starbucks would be a different kind of company that would not
leave anyone behind.10 Having witnessed the financial stress on his family when his
father was unemployed with a broken ankle and no medical benefits, Schultz is commit-
ted to treat all employees with respect and dignity. As a result, thousands of part-time
Starbucks workers have full medical benefits. The proof of the values is that Schultz is
not willing to compromise. Although his profit margins are lower than other fast-food
or restaurant businesses, Schultz says that it is the price you have to pay for doing busi-
ness his way.
By achieving these goals, Starbucks has proved that it is different from many
other companies. Creating a values list that looks good is not so difficult; living up

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Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
 "May it please you, sire," replied the man, with a degree of
boldness that amounted almost to affectation, "late last night, a
council was held in the tent of the emperor; and the Earl of Salisbury
chose me to hold his horse near the entrance of the tent,--for he is
as proud an Englishman as ever buckled on spurs;--and, though all
the other princes contented themselves with leaving their horses on
the outside of the second guard, he must needs ride to the very
door of the tent, and have his horse held there till he came out."

"By my faith! 'tis like their island pride!" said the king. "Each
Englishman fancies himself equal to a prince. But proceed with thy
tale, and be quick, for the hour of the council approaches."

"My story is a very short one, sire," replied the man, "for it was
but little I heard. However, after they had spoken within the tent for
some time in a low voice, the emperor's tongue sounded very loud,
as if some one had opposed him; and I heard him say, 'He will
march against us, whatever be the peril--I know him well; and then,
at the narrow passage of Damarets we will cut them off to a man,
for Sir Guy de Coucy has promised to embarrass their rear with the
men of Tankerville;--and he will keep his word too!' cried the
emperor loudly, as if some one had seemed to doubt it, 'for we have
promised him the hand of his lady love, the daughter of Count Julian
of the Mount, if we win the victory.'

"Ha!" cried the king, turning his eyes from the countenance of the
informer to that of Guerin,--"ha! this is treason, indeed! Said they
aught else, fellow, that you heard?"

"They spoke of there being many traitors in your host, sire,"

replied the man; "but they named none else but Sir Guy de Coucy;
and just then I heard the Earl of Salisbury speak as if he were
walking to the mouth of the tent. 'If Philip discovers his treason,'
said he, 'he will cut off his head, and then your plan is nought.' Just
as he spoke, he came out, and seeing me stand near the tent, he
bade me angrily go farther off, so that I heard no more."
 "Have Sir Guy de Coucy to prison!" said the king, turning to
Guerin. "By the holy rood! we will follow the good Earl of Salisbury's
plan, and have one traitor less in the camp!"

As he heard these words, the eyes of the informer sparkled with a

degree of joy, that did not escape the keen observing glance of the
king; but, wishing to gain more certain knowledge, he thanked him
with condescending dignity for the news he had given, and told him
to wait amongst the serjeants of arms below, till the council should
be over, when the chancellor would give him a purse of gold, as a
reward for his services. The man with a low reverence retired.
"Follow, Guerin," cried Philip hastily. "Bid some of the serjeants look
to him narrowly, but let them treat him well. Lead him to babble, if it
be possible. However, on no account let him escape. Have this De
Coucy to prison too, though I doubt the tale."

Guerin turned to obey; but, at that moment, the pages from

without opened the doors of the chamber, giving entrance to the
barons who had been called to the council.

A moment of bustle succeeded; and by the time that Guerin could

quit the king, the man who had brought the information we have
just heard was gone, and nowhere to be found.

So suspicious a circumstance induced Guerin to refrain from those

strong measures against De Coucy which the king had commanded,
till he had communicated with the monarch on the subject. He sent
down, however to the young knight's quarters, to require his
presence at the castle on business of import; when the answer
returned by his squires was, that De Coucy himself, his squire Hugo
de Barre, who had by this time been ransomed by his lord, his page,
and a small party of lances, had been absent ever since the
encampment had been completed, and no one knew whither they
had gone.
 Guerin knit his brows; for he would have staked much upon De
Coucy's honour; but yet, his absence at so critical a moment was
difficult to be accounted for. He returned to Philip instantly, and
found the council still in deliberation; some of its members being of
opinion that it would be better to march directly forward upon
Mortain and attack the enemy without loss of time; and others,
again strongly counselling retreat upon Peronne.

Many weighty arguments had been produced on both sides, and

at the moment Guerin entered, a degree of silence had taken place
previous to the king's pronouncing his final decision. Guerin,
however, approached the monarch, and bending beside him,
informed him, in a low voice, of what he had just heard.

The king listened, knitting his brows and fixing his eyes upon the
table, till Guerin had concluded; then raising his head, and thinking
for a moment, without taking any immediate notice of what the
minister had said, he announced his decision on the point before the
council.

"Noble lords," said he, "we have heard and weighed your opinions
upon the conduct of the war; but various circumstances will induce
us, in some degree, to modify both, or, rather, to take a medium
between them. If we advance upon the enemy at Mortain, we
expose ourself to immense disadvantage in the narrow passage by
Damarets. This consideration opposes itself on the one hand; and on
the other, it must never be said that Philip of France fled before his
enemies, when supported by so many true and faithful peers as we
see around us here;" and the monarch glanced his eagle eye rapidly
from face to face, with a look which, without evincing doubt,
gathered at once the expression of each as he spoke. "Our
determination therefore is, early to-morrow morning to march, as if
towards Lille; and the next day, wheeling through the open plains of
that country, to take the enemy on their flank, before they are aware
of our designs. By dawn, therefore, I pray ye, noble peers, have
your men all arrayed beneath your banners, and we will march
against our enemy; who, be assured, whatever fair promises he
holds out, is not alone the enemy of Philip, but of every true
Frenchman. You are fighting for your hearths and for your homes;
and where is the man, that will not strike boldly in such a quarrel?
For to-night, lords, adieu! To-morrow we will meet you with the first
ray of the sun."

With these words the council broke up, and the barons took their
leave and withdrew; some well contented with the king's plan, some
murmuring that their opinion had not been conceded to, and some
perhaps disappointed with a scheme that threatened failure to the
very confederacy against which they appeared in arms.

"'Tis strange, Guerin! 'tis strange!" cried the king, as soon as his
peers were gone, "We have traitors amongst us, I fear!--Yet I will
not believe that De Coucy is false. His absence is unaccountable;
but, depend on it, there is some good cause;--and yet, that groom's
tale against him! 'Tis strange! I doubt some of the faces, too, that I
have seen but now. But I will try them, Guerin--I will try them; and if
they be traitors, they shall damn themselves to hell!"

As the king had commanded, with the first ray of the sun the host
was under arms; and stretching out in a long line under the walls of
Tournay, it offered a gay and splendid sight, with the horizontal
beams of the early morning shining bright on a thousand banners,
and flashing back from ten thousand lances.

The marshals had scarcely arrayed it five minutes, when the king,
followed by his glittering train, issued forth from the castle, mounted
on a superb black charger, and armed cap-à-pié. He rode slowly
from one end of the line to the other, bowing his plumed helmet in
answer to the shouts and acclamations of the troops, and then
returned to the very centre of the host. Circling round the crest of
his casque were seen the golden fleurs de lis of the crown of France;
and it was remarked, that behind him two of his attendants carried
an immense golden wine-cup called a hanap, and a sharp naked
sword.

In the centre of the line the king paused, and raised the volant
piece of his helmet, when his face might be seen by every one,
calm, proud, and dignified. At a sign from the monarch, two priests
approached, carrying a large silver cruise and a small loaf of bread,
which Philip received from their hands; and, cutting the bread into
pieces with the edge of the sword carried by his attendant, he
placed the pieces in the chalice, and then poured it full of wine.

"Barons of France!" cried he, in a loud voice, which made itself

heard to an immense distance,--"Barons of France! Some foul liar
last night sent me word, that there were traitors in my council and
rebels in my host. Here I stand before you all, bearing on my casque
the crown of France; and if amongst you there be one man that
judges me unworthy to wear that crown, instantly let him separate
from my people and depart to my enemies. He shall go free and
unscathed, with his arms and followers, on the honour of a king! But
those noble barons who are willing to fight and to die with their
sovereign, in defence of their wives, their children, their homes, and
their country--let them come forward; and in union with their king,
eat this consecrated bread, and taste this sacred wine; and cursed
be he who shall hereafter forget this sign of unity and fellowship!"

A loud shout from the whole host was the first reply; and then
each baron, without an exception, hurried forward before the ranks,
and claimed to pledge himself as Philip had proposed.

In the midst of the ceremony, however, a tall strong man in black

armour pushed his way through the rest, exclaiming--"Give me the
cup! give me the cup!"

When it was placed in his hands, he raised it first to his head,

without lifting the visor of his helmet; but, finding his mistake, he
unclasped the volant hurriedly, and throwing it back, discovered the
wild countenance of Count Thibalt d'Auvergne. He then raised again
the cup, and with a quick, but not ungraceful movement, bowed low
to Philip, and drank some of the wine.

"Philip, king of France, I am yours till death," he said, when he

had drunk; and after gazing for a few moments earnestly in the
king's face, he turned his horse and galloped back to a large body of
lances, a little in the rear of the line.

"Unhappy man!" said the king; and turning to Guerin, he added--

"Let him be looked to, Guerin. See who is with him."

On sending to inquire, however, it was replied, that the Count

d'Auvergne was there with his vassals and followers, to serve his
sovereign Philip Augustus, in his wars, as a true and faithful
liegeman.

Satisfied, therefore, that he was under good and careful guidance,

the king turned his thoughts back to other subjects; and, having
briefly thanked his barons for their ready zeal, commanded the army
to begin its march upon Lille.

CHAPTER XII.

Between Mortain and Tournay, in a small road with high banks on

either side, the shrubs and flowers of which were covered with a
thick coating of dust, rode two of our old acquaintances, on the
same morning that the review we have just described took place in
the army of the king.
 The first, armed in haubergeon and casque, with his haussecol, or
gorget, hiding his long beard, and his helmet covering his short cut
hair, it was no longer difficult to recognise as Jodelle the Brabançois,
whom we saw last in an assumed character before Philip Augustus.
By his side, more gaudily costumed than ever, with a long peacock's
feather ornamenting his black cap, rode Gallon the fool.

Though two persons of such respectability might well have

pretended to some attendants, they were alone; and Jodelle, who
seemed in some haste, and not particularly pleased with his
companion's society, was pricking on at a sharp pace. But Gallon's
mare, on which he was once more mounted, had been trained by
himself, and ambled after the coterel's horse, with a sweet sort of
pertinacity from which there was no escaping.

"Why follow you me, fool, devil?" cried the Brabançois.--"Get thee
gone! We shall meet again. Fear not! I am in haste; and, my curse
upon those idiot Saxons that let you go, when I charged them to
keep you, after you hunted me all the way from your camp to ours
last night."

"Haw, haw!" cried Gallon, showing all his white sharp teeth to the
very back, as he grinned at Jodelle;--"haw, haw! thou art ungrateful,
sire Jodelle--Haw, haw! to think of a coterel being ungrateful! Did
not I let thee into all Coucy's secrets two days ago? Did not I save
thy neck from the hangman five months ago? And now, thou
ungrateful hound, thou grudgest me thy sweet company.--Haw, haw!
I that love thee,--haw, haw, haw! I that enjoy thy delectable
society!--Haw, haw! Haw, haw! Haw, haw!" and he rolled and
shouted with laughter, as if the very idea of any one loving the
Brabançois was sufficient to furnish the whole world with mirth. "So,
thou toldest thy brute Saxons to keep me, or hang me, or burn me
alive, if they would, last night--ay, and my bonny mare too; saying, it
was as great devil as myself. Haw, haw! maître Jodelle! They told me
all. But they fell in love with my phiz; and let me go, all for the
sweetness of my countenance. Who can resist my wonderous
charms?" and he contorted his features into a form that left them
the likeness of nothing human. "But I'll plague thee!" he continued;
"I'll never leave thee, till I see what thou dost with that packet in thy
bosom.--Haw, haw! I'll teaze thee! I have plagued the Coucy
enough, for a blow he gave me one day. Haw, haw! that I have!
Now, methinks, I'll have done with that, and do him some good
service!"

"Thou'lt never serve him more, fool!" cried Jodelle, his eyes
gleaming with sanguinary satisfaction; "I have paid him, too, for the
blow he gave me--and for more things than that! His head is off by
this time, juggler! I heard the order given myself--ay, and I caused
that order. Ha! canst thou do a feat like that?"

"Haw, haw! Haw, haw, haw!" screamed Gallon, wriggling his

snout hither and thither, and holding his sides with laughter. "Haw,
haw! thou dolt! thou ass! thou block! thou stump of an old tree! By
the Lord! thou must be a wit after all, to invent such a piece of
uncommon stupidity.--Haw, haw, haw! Haw, haw! Didst thou think,
that I would have furnished thee with a good tale against the Coucy,
and given thee means of speech with the chancellor himself, without
taking care to get the cow-killing, hammer-fisted homicide out of the
way first?--Haw, haw! thou idiot. Haw, haw, haw!--Lord! what an ass
a coterel is!--Haw, haw, haw!"

"Not such an ass as thou dreamest, fiend!" muttered Jodelle,

setting his teeth close, and almost resolved to aim a blow with his
dagger at the juggler as he rode beside him. But Gallon had always
one of his eyes, at least, fixed upon his companion; and, in truth,
Jodelle had seen so much of his extraordinary activity and strength
that he held Gallon in some dread, and scarcely dared to close with
him in fair and equal fight. He had smothered his vengeance for
long, however, and he had no inclination to delay it much longer, as
the worthy Brabançois had more reasons than one for resolving to
rid himself of the society of a person so little trustworthy as Gallon,
in the most summary manner possible--but the only question was
how to take him at a disadvantage.

For this purpose, it was necessary to cover every appearance of

wrath, that the juggler might be thrown off his guard. Jodelle
smoothed his brow therefore, and, after a moment, affected to join
in Gallon's laugh. "Thou art a cunning dealer!" said he--"thou art a
cunning dealer, sir Gallon! But, in troth, I should like to know how
thou didst contrive to beguile this De Coucy away from the army, as
thou sayest, at such a moment."

"Haw, haw!" cried Gallon--"haw, haw! 'Twas no hard work. How

dost thou catch a sparrow, sire Jodelle? Is it not by spreading out
some crumbs? Well, by the holy rood! as he says himself, I sent him
a goose's errand all the way down the river, to reconnoitre a party of
men whom I made Ermold the page, make Hugo the squire, make
Coucy the knight, believe were going to take the king's host on the
flank!--Haw, haw! Oh rare!"

"By St. Peter! thou hast betrayed what I told thee when we were
drinking two nights since," cried Jodelle. "Fool! thou wilt have my
dagger in thee if thou heedest not!"

"Oh rare!" shouted Gallon, "Oh rare! What then, did I tell the
Coucy true, when I said Count Julian of the Mount, and William de la
Roche Guyon, were there with ten thousand men?--Haw, haw! did I
tell him true, coterel? Talk not to me of daggers, lout, or I'll drive
mine in under thy fifth rib, and leave thee as dead as a horse's
bones on a common. Haw, haw! I thought the Coucy would have
gone down with all the men of Tankerville, and have chined me that
fair-faced coward, that once fingered this great monument of my
beauty;" and he laid his finger on his long unnatural snout, with so
mingled an expression of face, that it was difficult to decide whether
he spoke in vanity or mockery. "But he only went down to
reconnoitre," added the juggler. "The great ninny! he might have
swallowed father and lover up at a mouthful, and then married the
heiress if he had liked! And he calls me fool, too! Oh rare!--But
where art thou going, beau sire Jodelle? I saw all your army a-foot
before I left them to come after you; and I dreamed that they were
going to cut off the king at the passage by Bovines; and doubtless
thou art bearer of an order to Sir Julian, and Count William, with the
Duke of Limburg and the men of Ardennes, to take him in the rear.
Haw, haw! there will be fine smashing of bones, and hacking of
flesh. I must be there to have the picking of the dead men."

Thus ran on Gallon, rambling from subject to subject, but withal

betraying so clear a knowledge of all the plans of the imperial army,
that Jodelle believed his information to be little less than magical;
though indeed Gallon was indebted for it to strolling amongst the
tents of the Germans the night before, and catching here and there,
while he amused the knights and squires with his tricks of jonglerie,
all the rumours that were afloat concerning the movements of the
next day. From these, with a happiness that madness sometimes
has, he jumped at conclusions, which many a wiser brain would
have missed, and, like a blind man stumbling on a treasure, hit by
accident upon the exact truth.

As his conversation with Jodelle arrived at this particular point,

the road which they were pursuing opened out upon a little irregular
piece of ground, bisected by another by-path, equally ornamented
by high rough banks. Nevertheless, neither of these roads traversed
the centre of the little green or common; the one which the
travellers were pursuing skirting along the side, under the sort of
cliff by which it was flanked, and the other edging the opposite
extreme. At the intersection of the paths, however, on the very top
of the farther bank, stood a tall elm tree, which Gallon measured
with his eye as they approached.

"Haw, haw!" cried he, delighting in every recollection that might

prove unpleasant to his neighbours.--"Haw, haw! Beau sire Jodelle!
Monstrous like the tree on which they were going to hang you, near
the Pont de l'Arche! Haw, haw, haw! The time when you were like to
be hanged, and I saved you--you remember?"

"Thou didst not save me, fool!" replied the Brabançois: "'twas king
John saved me. I would not owe my life to such a foul fool as thou
art, for all that it is worth. The king saved my life to do a great deed
of vengeance, which I will accomplish yet before I die," added
Jodelle, "and then I'll account with him too, for what I owe him--he
shall not be forgot! no, no!" and the plunderer's eyes gleamed as he
thought of the fate that the faithless monarch had appointed for
him, and connected it with the vague schemes of vengeance that
were floating through his own brain.

"Haw, haw!" cried Gallon. "If thou goest not to hell, sire Jodelle,
thou art sure t'will not be for lack of thanklessness, to back your fair
bevy of gentlemanly vices. John, the gentle, sent thee thy pardon,
that thou mightest murder De Coucy for prating of his murdering
Arthur,--I know that as well as thou dost; but had my tongue not
been quicker than his messenger's horse, thou wouldst soon have
been farther on your road to heaven than ever you may be again.
Oh rare! How the crows of the Pont de l'Arche must hate me! Haw,
haw! vinegar face! didst ever turn milk sour with thy sharp nose?--
Hark! Hear you not a distant clatter? Your army is marching down
towards the bridge, prince Pumkin," he rambled on; "I'll up into yon
tree, and see; for this country is as flat as peas porridge."

So saying. Gallon sprang to the ground, climbed the bank in an

instant, and walked up the straight boll of the tree, as easily as if he
had been furnished with a ladder; giving a quick glance round,
however, every step, to see that Jodelle did not take any advantage
of him.

His movements had been so rapid, that with the best intentions
thereunto in the world, the coterel could not have injured him in his
ascent; and when he was once up, he began to question him on
what he saw.
 "What do I see?" said Gallon. "Why, when I look that way, I see
German asses, and Lorraine foxes, and English curs, and Flanders
mules, all marching down towards the river as quietly as may be;
and when I look the other way, I perceive a whole band of French
monkeys, tripping on gaily without seeing the others; and when I
look down there," he continued, pointing to Jodelle, "I see a
Provençal wolf, hungry for plunder, and thirsty for blood;" and Gallon
began to descend the tree.

As he had spoken, there was a sound of horses heard coming up

the road, and Jodelle spurred close up under the bank, as if to catch
a glance of the persons who were approaching; but, at the same
moment, he quietly drew his sword. Gallon instantly perceived his
manœuvre, and attempted to spring up the tree once more.

Ere he could do so, however, Jodelle struck at him; and though he

could only reach high enough to wound the tendon of his leg, the
pain made the juggler let go his hold, and he fell to the top of the
bank, nearly on a level with the face of the coterel, who, rising in his
stirrups, with the full lunge of his arm, plunged his sword into his
body.

Though mortally wounded, Gallon, without word or groan, rolled

down the bank, and clung to the legs of his enemy's horse, impeding
the motions of the animal as much as if it had been clogged; while
at the same time Jodelle now urged it furiously with the spur; for the
sound of coming cavaliers, and the glance of a knight's pennon from
behind the turn of the road, at about an hundred yards' distance,
showed him that he must either ride on, or take the risk of the party
being inimical to his own.

Three times the horse, plunging furiously under the spur, set its
feet full on the body of the unfortunate juggler; but still he kept his
hold, without a speech or outcry, till suddenly shouting "Haw, haw!--
Haw, haw, haw!--The Coucy! the Coucy! Haw, haw!" he let go his
hold; and the coterel galloped on at full speed, ascertaining by a
single glance, that Gallon's shout announced nothing but the truth.

De Coucy's eyes were quick, however; and his horse far fleeter
than that of the coterel. He saw Jodelle, and recognised him
instantly; while the dying form of Gallon, and the blood that stained
the dry white sand of the road, in dark red patches round about, told
their own tale, and were not to be mistaken. Without pausing to
clasp his visor, or to brace his shield, the knight snatched his lance
from his squire, struck his spurs into the flanks of his charger; and,
before Jodelle had reached the other side of the little green, the iron
of the spear struck him between the shoulders, and, passing through
his plastron as if it had been made of parchment, hurled him from
his horse, never to mount again. A shrill cry like that of a wounded
vulture, as the knight struck him, and a deep groan as he fell to the
ground, were the only sounds that the plunderer uttered more. De
Coucy tugged at his lance for a moment, endeavouring to shake it
free from the body; but, finding that he could not do so without
dismounting, he left it in the hands of his squire, and returned to the
spot where Gallon the fool still lay, surrounded by part of the young
knight's train.

"Coucy, Coucy!" cried the dying juggler, in a faint voice, "Gallon is

going on the long journey! Come hither, and speak to him before he
sets out!"

The young knight put his foot to the ground, and came close up
to his wounded follower, who gazed on him with wistful eyes, in
which shone the first glance of affection, perhaps, that ever he had
bestowed on mortal man.

"I am sorry to leave thee, Coucy!" said he, "I am sorry to leave
thee, now it comes to this--I love thee better than I thought. Give
me thy hand."
 De Coucy spoke a few words of kindness to him, and let him take
his hand, which he carried feebly to his lips, and licked it like a dying
dog.

"I have spited you very often, Coucy," said the juggler; "and do
you know I am sorry for it now, for you have been kinder to me than
any one else. Will you forgive me?"

"Yes, my poor Gallon," replied the knight: "I know of no great evil
thou hast done; and even if thou hast, I forgive thee from my
heart."

"Heaven bless thee for it!" said Gallon.--"Heaven bless thee for it!-
-But hark thee, De Coucy! I will do thee one good turn before I die.
Give me some wine out of thy boutiau, mad Ermold the page, and I
will tell the Coucy where I have wronged him, and where he may
right himself. Give me some wine, quick, for my horse is jogging to
the other world."

Ermold, as he was desired, put the leathern bottle, which every

one travelled with in those days, to the lips of the dying man; who,
after a long draught, proceeded with his confession. We will pass
over many a trick which he acknowledged to have played his lord in
the Holy Land, at Constantinople, and in Italy, always demanding
between each, "Can you forgive me now?" De Coucy's heart was not
one to refuse pardon to a dying man; and Gallon proceeded to
speak of the deceit he had put upon him concerning the lands of the
Count de Tankerville. "It was all false together," said he. "The
Vidame of Besançon told me to tell you, that his friend, the Count de
Tankerville, had sent a charter to be kept in the king's hands, giving
you all his feofs; and now, when he sees you with the army,
commanding the men of Tankerville, the vidame thinks that you are
commanding them by your own right, not out of the good will of the
king. Besides, he told me, he did not know whether your uncle was
dead or not; but that Bernard, the hermit of Vincennes, could inform
you."
 "But why did you not--?" demanded De Coucy.

"Ask me no questions, Coucy," cried Gallon: "I have but little

breath left; and that must go to tell you something more important
still. From the top of yon tree, I saw the king marching down to the
bridge at Bovines; and, without his knowing it, the enemy are
marching after him. If he gets half over, he is lost. I heard Henry of
Brabant last night say, that they would send a plan of their battle to
the Duke of Limburg, Count Julian, and William de la Roche Guyon,
whose troops I sent you after, down the river. He said too,"
proceeded Gallon, growing apparently fainter as he spoke,--"he said
too, that it was to be carried by one who well knew the French
camp. Oh, Coucy, my breath fails me. Jodelle, the coterel--he is the
man, I am sure--the papers are on him.--But, Coucy! Coucy!" he
continued, gasping for breath, and holding the knight with a sort of
convulsive grasp, as he saw him turning to seek the important
packet he mentioned,--"do not go, Coucy! do not go to the camp--
they think you a traitor.--Oh, how dim my eyes grow!--They will have
your head off--don't go--you'll be of no use with the head off--Haw,
haw! haw, haw!" And with a faint effort at his old wild laugh. Gallon
the fool gave one or two sharp shudders, and yielded the spirit, still
holding De Coucy tight by the arm.

"He is gone!" said the knight, disengaging himself from his grasp.
"Our army marching upon Bovines!" continued he: "can it be true?
They were not to quit Tournay for two days.--Up, Ermold, into that
tree, and see whether you can gain any sight of them. Quick! for we
must spur hard, if it be true.--You, Hugo, search the body of the
coterel.--Quick, Ermold--hold by that branch--there, your foot on the
other! See you any thing now?"

With some difficulty, Ermold de Marcy, though an active youth,

had climbed half-way up the tree that Gallon had sprung up like a
squirrel; and now, holding round it with both legs and arms, he
gazed out over the far prospect. "I see spears," cried he,--"I see
spears marching on by the river--and I can see the bridge too!"
 "Are there any men on it?" cried De Coucy:--"how far is it from
the foremost spears?"

"It is clear yet!" replied the page; "but the lances in the van are
not half a mile from it!"

"Look to the right!--look to the right!" cried the knight; "towards

Mortain, what see you?"

"I see a clump or two of spears," replied the youth, "scattered

here and there; but over one part, that seems a valley, there rises a
cloud;--it maybe the morning mist--it may be dust:--stay, I will climb
higher;" and he contrived to reach two or three branches above.
"Lances, as I live!" cried he: "I see the steel heads glittering through
the cloud of dust, and moving on, just above the place where the hill
cuts them. They are rising above the slope--now they dip down
again--thousands on thousands--never did I see such a host in
Christendom or Paynimry!"

"Come down, Ermold, and mount!" cried the knight. "Two of the
servants of arms, take up yon poor fellow's body!" he continued,
"and bear it to the cottage where we watered our horses but now--
then follow towards the bridge with all speed.--Now, Hugo, hast thou
the packet? 'Tis it, by the holy rood!" he added, taking a sealed
paper that the squire had found upon Jodelle. "To horse! to horse!
We shall reach the king's host yet, ere the van has passed the
bridge. He must fight there or lose all." And followed by the small
body of spears that accompanied him, Guy de Coucy spurred on at
full gallop towards the bridge of Bovines.

The distance might be about four miles; but ere he had ridden
one-half of that way, he came suddenly upon a body of about
twenty spears, at the top of a slight rise that concealed each party
till they were within fifty yards of the other. "Down with your lances!"
cried De Coucy; "France! France! A Coucy! a Coucy!" and in an
instant the spears of his followers, to the number of about seventy,
were levelled in a long straight row.

"France! France!" echoed the other party; and, riding forward, De

Coucy was met in mid space by the Chancellor Guerin,--armed at all
points, but bearing the coat and cross of a knight hospitaller--and
Adam Viscount de Melun, who had together ridden out from the
main body of the army, to ascertain the truth of some vague reports,
that the enemy had left Mortain, and was pursuing with all his
forces.

"Well met. Sir Guy de Coucy," said Guerin. "By your cry of France
but now, I trust you are no traitor to France, though strange
accusations against you reached the king last night; and your
absence at a moment of danger countenanced them. I have order,"
he added, "to attach you for treason."

"Whosoever calls me traitor, lies in his teeth," replied the knight

rapidly, eager to arrive at the king's host with all speed. "My absence
was in the kings service; and as to attaching me for treason, lord
bishop," he added with a smile, "methinks my seventy lances against
your twenty will soon cancel your warrant. I dreamed not that the
king would think of marching to-day, being Sunday, or I should have
returned before. But now, my lord, my errand is to the king himself,
and 'tis one also that requires speed. The enemy are following like
hounds behind the deer. I have here a plan of their battle. They
hope to surprise the king at the passage of the river. He must halt
on this side, or all is lost. From that range of low hills, most likely
you will see the enemy advancing.--Farewell."

Guerin, who had never for a moment doubted the young knight's
innocence, did not of course attempt to stay him, and De Coucy
once more galloped on at full speed. He soon began to fall in with
stragglers from the different bodies of the royal forces; camp
followers, plunderers, skirmishers, pedlars, jugglers, cooks, and all
the train of extraneous living lumber attached to an army of the
thirteenth century. From these he could gain no certain information
of where the king was to be found. Some said he had passed the
bridge,--some said he was yet in the rear; and, finding that they
were all as ignorant on the subject as himself, the young knight sped
on; and passing by several of the thick battalions which were
hurrying on through clouds of July dust towards the bridge, he
demanded of one of the leaders, where was the king.

"I heard but now, that he was in that green meadow to the right,"
replied the other knight; "and, see!" he added, pointing with his
lance, "that may be he, under those ash-trees."

De Coucy turned his eyes in the direction the other pointed, and
perceived a group of persons, some on horseback, some on foot,
standing round one who, stretched upon the grass, lay resting
himself under the shadow of a graceful clump of ash-trees. Close
behind him stood a squire, holding a casque in his hand; and
another, at a little distance, kept in the ardour of a magnificent
battle-horse, that, neighing and pawing the grass, seemed eager to
join the phalanx that defiled before him.

It was evidently the king who lay there; and De Coucy, bringing
his men to a halt, at the side of the high road, along which the rest
were pressing, troop after troop, towards the bridge, spurred on,
followed by his squires alone, and rode up to the group at once.

Philip Augustus raised his eyes to De Coucy's face as he came up;

and, at a few paces, the young knight sprang from his horse, and
casting his rein to Hugo de Barre, approached the monarch.

"My lord," said he earnestly, as soon as he was within hearing, "I

beseech you to order a halt, and command your troops who have
passed the bridge to return. The enemy are not half a mile from
you; and before half the army can pass, you will be attacked on all
sides."
 De Coucy spoke rapidly, and the king answered in the same
manner. "Sir Guy de Coucy," said he, without rising, however, "you
are accused to me of treason. Ought I to listen to counsel from a
man in that situation?"

"My lord the king," replied the knight, "God send you many such
good traitors as I am! There is the enemy's plan of attack;--at least,
so I believe, for I have not opened it. You will see by the seal it is
from the Duke of Brabant; and by the superscription, that it is to the
Duke of Limburgh, together with Count Julian of the Mount, and
Count William de la Roche Guyon, his allies. I reconnoitred their
forces last night; they amount to fifteen thousand men; and lie three
miles down the river."

The king took the paper, and hastily cut the silk with his dagger.
"Halt!" cried he, after glancing his eye over it. "Mareuil de Malvoisin,
command a halt!--Ho, Guerin!" he cried, seeing the minister riding
quickly towards him. "Have you seen the enemy?"

"They are advancing with all speed, sire," shouted the hospitaller
as he rode up. "For God's sake, sire, call back the troops! They are
coming up like the swarms of locusts we have seen in Palestine.
Their spears are like corn in August."

"We will reap them," cried Philip, starting up with a triumphant

smile upon his lip,--"we will reap them!--To arms! Warriors, to arms!"
And putting his foot in the stirrup, he stood with his hand upon the
horse's neck, turning to those about him, and multiplying his orders
with the prompt activity of his keen all-grasping mind. "The
oriflamme has passed the bridge; speed to bring it back, Renault.--
Hugo, to the Count of St. Pol! bid him return with all haste.--De
Coucy, I did you wrong--forget it, and strike this day as you are
wont.--Guerin, array the host as we determined. See that the faithful
communes be placed in our own battle, but let Arras and Amiens
hold the second line. Let the barons and the knights stretch out as
far as may be;--remember! every man's own lance and shield must
be his safeguard.--Eustache, speed to the Count de Beaumont; bid
him re-pass the river at the ford, and take his place at the right.--
Now, Guerin, hasten! Let the sergeants of Soissons begin the battle,
that the enemy may be broken ere the knights charge.--Away, De
Coucy! Lead Tankerville well, and win the day.--Guillaume de
Mortemar, stay by our person."

Such were some of the orders given by Philip Augustus: then,

springing on his horse, he received his casque, and, raising the visor,
sat in silence gazing upon the field, which was clear and open on all
sides, except the road, through which the troops were still seen
approaching towards the bridge; and which, in the other direction,
wound away towards Tournay, through some small woods and
valleys that hid the rear guard from view.

In the meanwhile, Guerin, whose long experience as a knight

hospitaller qualified him well to marshal the army, hastened to array
all the troops that had yet arrived on the plain, taking care to keep
the entrance of the bridge free, that the forces which had already
passed and were returning upon their steps, might take up their
position without confusion and disarray. At that moment, a
messenger arrived in breathless haste from the rear of the army,
stating that the enemy were already engaged with the light troops of
Auxerre, who sustained themselves with difficulty, and demanded
help. But even while he spoke, the two bodies engaged issued forth
upon the plain; and the spears of the whole imperial army began to
bristle over the hills.

The trumpets of the French sounded as their enemies appeared;

and it seemed that the emperor was not a little surprised to find his
adversary so well prepared to meet him.

Whether the unexpected sight of so large a body of troops drawn

up to oppose them embarrassed the confederates and deranged
their plans, or whether Philip's first line covering the bridge they did
not perceive that a great part of his forces were still either on the
other side of the river, or engaged in repassing it, cannot now be
told; but they took no advantage of so favourable a moment for
attack. The body engaged with the rear of Philip's army was called
back; and wheeling to the right of the road by which they came,
they took up their position on the slope of the hills to the north of
the plain, while Philip eagerly seized the opportunity of displaying his
forces on the southern side, thus having the eyes of his soldiers
turned away from the burning sun, that shone full in the faces of the
adverse host. An army commanded by many chiefs, is of course
never well led; for what may be gained by consultation is ever lost
by indecision; and the two great faults thus committed by the
confederates were probably owing to the uncertainty of their
councils.

However that might be, they suffered Philip greatly to recover the
unity of his forces, and to take up the best position on the field;
after which succeeded a pause, as if they hesitated to begin the
strife, though theirs had been the party to follow and to urge their
enemy to a battle, and though they had overtaken him at the precise
moment which they had themselves planned, and in which an attack
must have proved the most disastrous.

CHAPTER XIII.

For several minutes after the two armies were thus ranged opposite
each other, both stood without motion, gazing on the adverse host.
The front line was composed almost entirely of cavalry, which
formed in those days the great strength of an army, and uniformly
decided the event of a battle; but between the long battalions of the
knights and men-at-arms were ranged close bodies of cross-bowmen
and archers, who waited but a signal to commence the engagement
with their missiles.

Standing thus face to face, with but a narrow space between

them, the two hosts seemed as if contemplating the glittering array
of the field, which, if we may believe the "branch of royal lineages,"
offered on either part as splendid a pageant as ever a royal court
exhibited on fête or tournament. "There," it says in its naif jargon,
"you might see many a pleasant coat of arms, and many a neat and
gentle device, tissued of gold and various shining colours, blue,
vermilion, yellow, and green. There were to be seen serried shields,
and neighing horses, and ringing arms, pennons and banners, and
helms and glittering crests."

To the left of the imperial army appeared Ferrand, Count of

Flanders, with an immense host of hardy Flemings, together with the
Count de Boulogne and several other of the minor confederates;
while, opposed to him, was the young Duke of Champagne, the
Duke of Burgundy, and the men of the commune of Soissons. To the
right of the imperial army was a small body of English, with the
Duke of Brabant and his forces in face of the Comte de Dreux, the
Bishop of Beauvais, and a body of the troops of the clergy; while in
the centre of each host, and conspicuous to both, were Otho,
Emperor of Germany, and Philip Augustus of France, commanding in
person the chosen knights of either monarchy.

In the midst of the dark square of lances that surrounded the

emperor was to be seen a splendid car, from the centre of which
rose a tall pole, bearing on the top the imperial standard, a golden
eagle hovering above a dragon; while, beside Philip Augustus, was
borne the royal banner of France,[29] consisting of an azure field
embroidered with fleurs de lis of gold. On either hand of the king
were ranged the knights selected to attend his person, whom we
find named as William des Barres, Barthelmy de Roye, Peter de
Malvoisin, Gerard Scropha, Steven of Longchamp, William of
Mortemar, John of Rouvrai, William de Garlande, and Henry, Count
de Bar, all men distinguished in arms, and chosen for their high and
chivalrous qualities.

A dead silence pervaded the field. Each host, as we have said,

gazed upon the other, still and motionless, waiting in awful
expectation the first movement which should begin the horrid scene
of carnage about to follow. It wanted but a word--a sign--the
levelling of a lance--the sounding of a trumpet, to cast the whole
dark mass of bloodthirsty insects there assembled into strife and
mutual destruction: but yet there was a pause; as if each monarch
felt the dreadful responsibility which that signal would bring upon his
head, and hesitated to give it. Some reflections of the kind certainly
passed through the mind of Philip Augustus; for, turning to William
de Mortemar, he said, "We must begin the fight--I seek not their
blood, but God gives us a right to defend ourselves. They have
leagued to crush me, and the carnage of this day be upon their
head. Where is the oriflamme?" he continued, looking round for the
consecrated banner of St. Denis.

"It has not yet repassed the river, sire," replied Gerard Scropha. "I
heard the tramp of the communes still coming over the bridge, and
filling up the ranks behind. The oriflamme was the first banner that
passed, and therefore of course will be the last that returns.

"We must not wait for it then," said the king. "Henry de Bar,
speed to Guerin, who is on the right, with the Count de St. Paul; bid
them begin the battle by throwing in a few men-at-arms to shake
that heavy line of the Flemings. Then let the knights charge."

The young count bowed low, and set spurs to his horse; but his
very passage along the line was a signal for the confederates to
commence the fight. A flight of arrows and quarrels instantly
darkened the sky, and fell thick as hail amongst the ranks of the
French; the trumpets sounded, the lances were levelled, and two of
the king's chaplains, who were placed at a little distance behind him,
began to sing the hundred and forty-third Psalm, while the tears
rolled plentifully from their eyes, from the effects of mingled fear,
agitation, and devotion.

In the meanwhile, an hundred and fifty sergeants of arms

charged the whole force of the Count of Flanders, according to the
order of the king. His intention was completely fulfilled.[30] Dropping
the points of their lances, the French men-at-arms cast themselves
into the midst of the Flemish knights, who, indignant at being
attacked by men who had not received the honours of chivalry, fell
upon them furiously, with little regard to their own good order.

In an instant, the horses of the French men-at-arms were all

slain; but being men of the commune of Soissons, trained to fight on
foot as well as on horseback, they prolonged the fight hand to hand
with the enemy's knights, and completely succeeded in throwing the
centre of the imperial left wing into disarray. At that moment, the
battalion of knights, under the Count de St. Paul, charged in support
of the men-at-arms, and with their long lances levelled in line swept
all before them, cleaving through the host of Flemings, and
scattering them abroad upon the plain, as a thunderbolt strikes a
pine, and rends it into atoms.

The strife, thus begun upon the right wing of the royal army, soon
communicated itself to the centre; where, on a small mound sat
Philip Augustus, viewing with a calm observing eye the progress of
the battle, though gradually the dust and steam of the fight, and the
confused groups of the combatants, falling every moment into
greater disorder, would have confounded a less keen and
experienced glance than his.

Though the left was now also engaged, the monarch's eye
principally rested upon the right wing of his forces, where the Count
of St. Paul, the Dukes of Burgundy and Champagne, were still
struggling hard with the Flemings, whose second and third line,
having come up, had turned the fortune of the day, and were driving
back the French towards the river.

"By the Lord of Heaven! Burgundy is down!" cried Philip. "Ho,

Michael, gallop to Sir Guy de Coucy; tell him to charge with the men
of Tankerville, to support the good Duke of Burgundy! Away!"

The sergeant to whom he spoke galloped off like lightning to the

spot where De Coucy was placed as a reserve.

"By Heaven! the duke is down, and his banner too!" continued the
king, turning to Guerin, who now had joined him. "De Coucy moves
not yet. St. Denis to boot! they will turn our flank. Is the knight a
coward or mad?--Away, Guerin! Bid him charge for his honour."

But the king saw not what De Coucy saw, that a fresh corps of
the confederates was debouching from the road behind the imperial
army. If he attacked the Flemings before this body had advanced, he
not only left his own rear unguarded, but the flank of the whole
army totally exposed. He paused, therefore notwithstanding the
critical situation of the Duke of Burgundy, till such time as this fresh
body had, in the hurry and confusion of their arrival, advanced
between him and the Flemings.

Then, however, the fifteen hundred lances he commanded were

levelled in an instant: the trumpets sounded, the chargers sprang
forward, and, hurled like an avalanche against the flank of this newly
arrived corps, the squadron of De Coucy drove them in pell-mell
upon the Flemings, forced the Flemings themselves back upon the
troops of the emperor, and left a clear space for the soldiers of
Burgundy and Champagne, to rally round their chiefs.

"Brave De Coucy!" cried the king, who had marked the

manœuvre. "Good knight! Stout lance! All goes down before him.
Burgundy is up. His banner waves again. Ride, Walter the young,
and compliment the duke for me. Who are these coming down? I
cannot see for the dust."
 "They are the burgesses of Compiègne and Abbeville, and the
oriflamme, sire," replied Guillaume des Barres. "They want a taste of
the fight, and are forcing themselves in between us and those Saxon
serfs, who are advancing straight towards us."

As he spoke the men of the communes, eager to signalise

themselves in the service of a king who had done so much for them,
marched boldly into the very front of the battle, and mingled hand to
hand with an immense body of German infantry that were
approaching rapidly towards the king.

The French communes, however, were inferior to the burly

Saxons, both in number and in strength; and were, after an
obstinate fight, driven back to the very foot of the mound on which
Philip was placed. The knights and men-at-arms who surrounded
him, seeing the battle so near the monarch's person, charged
through the ranks of the burgesses, and, mingling with the Saxon
infantry, cut them down in all directions with their long heavy
swords. The German cavalry again spurred forward to support their
own communes; and the fight became general around the
immediate person of the monarch, who remained on the summit of
the hillock, with no one but the Count de Montigny, bearing his
standard, and Sir Stephen of Longchamp, who had refrained from
following the rest into the melée.

"For God's sake! sire, retire a little!" said the knight: "if you are
hurt, all is lost."

"Not a step, for a thousand empires!" replied the king, drawing

down his visor and unsheathing his sword, as he beheld three or
four German knights spurring towards him at full career, followed by
a large troop of footmen, contending with the burghers of
Compiègne. "We must do our devoir as a knight as well as a king,
Sir Stephen."
 "Mine then as a knight!" cried Stephen of Longchamp, laying his
lance in rest; and on he galloped at the foremost of the German
knights, whom he hurled dead from his horse, pierced from side to
side with the iron of the spear.

The German that followed, however, without, spending a blow on

the French knight's casque, plunged his sword in his horse's chest,
at a spot where the iron barding was wanting. Rider and horse went
down at once; and the German, springing to the ground, drew a
long knife from his side, and knelt upon his prostrate adversary's
chest.

"Denis Mountjoy!" cried the king, galloping on to the aid of his

faithful follower. "Denis Mountjoy! au secours!"; But before he could
arrive, the German knight had plunged his knife through the bars of
the fallen man's helmet, and Stephen Longchamp was no more. The
monarch avenged him, however, if he could not save; and, as the
Saxon's head was bent down, accomplishing his bloody purpose, he
struck him so fierce a blow on the back of his neck, with the full
sway of a vigorous and practised arm, that the hood of his mail shirt
yielded at once to the blow, and the edge of the weapon drove on
through the backbone.

At that moment, however, the king found himself surrounded on

every side by the German foot, who hemmed him in with their short
pikes. The only knight who was near him was the Count de
Montigny, bearing the royal banner; and nothing was to be seen
around but the fierce faces of the Saxon pikemen looking out from
under their steel caps, drawing their circle closer and closer round
him, and fixing their eager eyes upon the crown that he wore on the
crest of his helmet--or else the forms of some German knights at a
short distance, whirling about like armed phantoms, through the
clouds of dust that enveloped the whole scene.

Still Philip fought with desperate valour, plunging his horse into
the ranks of the pikemen, and dealing sweeping blows around with
his sword, which four or five times succeeded in clearing the space
immediately before him.

Well and nobly too did the Count de Montigny do his devoir,
holding with one hand the royal banner, which he raised and
depressed continually, to give notice to all eyes of the monarch's
danger, and striking with the other on every side round Philip's
person, which he thus protected for many minutes from the near
approach of his enemies.

It was in vain, however, that the king and his banner-bearer

displayed such feats of chivalrous valour. Closer and closer the
German burgesses hemmed them in. Many of the Saxon knights
became attracted by the sight of the royal banner, and were urging
their horses through the melée towards the spot where the conflict
was raging so fiercely, when one of the serfs crept close to the king's
charger. Philip felt his horse reeling underneath him; and, in a
moment, the animal fell to the ground, bearing its rider down along
with it.

A hundred of the long, three-edged knives, with which many of

the Saxons fought that day, were instantly at the King's throat, and
at the bars of his helmet. One thought of Agnes--one brief prayer to
Heaven, was all that seemed allowed to Philip Augustus; but that
moment, the shout of "Auvergne! Auvergne!" rang upon his ear and
yielded hope.

With his head bent down to his saddle-bow, receiving a thousand

blows as he came, his horse all in foam and blood, his armour
hacked, dented, and broken, Thibalt d'Auvergne clove the hostile
press with the fierce rapidity of a falcon in its stoop. He checked his
horse but by the royal banner; he sprang to the ground; dashed,
weltering to the earth, the boors who were kneeling on the prostrate
body of the king, and, striding over it, whirled his immense mace
round his head, at every blow sending the soul of some Saxon on
the cold pilgrimage of death. The burgesses reeled back; but at the
same time the knights who had been advancing, hurled themselves
upon the Count d'Auvergne, and heaped blow upon blow on his
head.

The safety of the whole host--the life and death, or captivity of

the king--the destiny of all Europe--perhaps of all the world,
depended at that moment on the arm of a madman. But that arm
bore it all nobly up; and, though his armour was actually hewn from
his flesh, and he himself bleeding from an hundred wounds, he
wavered not a step; but, still striding over the body of the king, as
he lay unable to rise, from the weight of his horse resting on his
thigh, maintained his ground till, knight after knight arriving on both
sides, the combat became more equal.

Still the fight around the royal banner was doubtful, when the
battle-cry of De Coucy was heard approaching. "A Coucy! A Coucy!
St. Michael! St. Michael!" rang over the plain; and the long lances of
Tankerville, which had twice completely traversed and retraversed
the enemy's line,[31] were seen sweeping on, in unbroken masses,
like a thunder-cloud advancing over the heaven. The regular order
they had still preserved, as well as their admirable training, and
confidence in their leader, gave them vast superiority. The German
pikemen were trampled under their tread. The knights were forced
back at the point of the spear; the communes of Compiègne and
Abbeville rallied behind them, and, in a short time, the field around
the royal banner was once more clear of all enemies.

The first thing was to free the king from the weight of his horse,
which had been stabbed in the neck, and was now quite dead. The
monarch rose; but, before he remounted, though there were a
thousand horses held ready for him, and a thousand voices pressing
him to mount, he exclaimed, "Where is the Count d'Auvergne? I owe
him life.--Stand back, Guillaume des Barres! your foot is on his chest.
That is he in the black armour!"
 It was indeed the unhappy Count d'Auvergne, who had borne up
under a multitude of wounds, till the life of the king was in safety.
He had then fallen in the melée, striking still, and lay upon a heap of
dead that his hand had made. By the king's order, his casque was
instantly unlaced; and Philip himself, kneeling beside him, raised his
head upon his knee, and gazed in the ashy face to see if the flame
of life's frail lamp was extinct indeed in the breast of him who had
saved him from the tomb.

D'Auvergne opened his eyes, and looked faintly in the face of the
monarch. His lips moved, but no sound issued from them.

"If thou diest, Auvergne," said Philip, in the fulness of his

gratitude, "I have lost my best subject."

The count made another effort to speak. The king stooped over
him, and inclined his ear. "Tell her," said the broken accents of the
dying man,--"tell her--that for her love--I died--to save your life."

"I will," said Philip Augustus!--"on my faith, I will! and I know her
not, or she will weep your fall."

There was something like a faint smile played round the dying
knight's lip; his eyes fixed upon the king, and the spirit that lighted
them passed away for ever!

"Farewell, Auvergne!" said the king. "Des Barres, see his body
removed and honoured. And now, good knights," cried he, springing
on horseback, "how fares the fight? My eyes have been absent too
long. But, by my faith! you have worked well while I was down. The
enemy's left is flying, or my sight deceives me."

"'Tis true, my lord;--'tis true!" replied Guillaume des Barres; "and

Ferrand of Flanders himself is taken by the Duke of Burgundy."

"Thank God for that!" cried Philip, and he turned his eyes quickly
to the centre. "They seem in strange confusion there. Where is the
imperial standard? Where is Otho himself?"

"Otho has to do with Peter of Malvoisin and Gerard the Sow,"

replied William des Barres, laughing, "and finds them unpleasant
neighbours doubtless. But do you know, sire, that a pike head is
sticking in your cuirass?"

"Mind not that!" cried the king; "Let us charge! Otho's ranks are
broken; his men dispersed; one gallant charge, and the day is ours.
Down with your lances, De Coucy! Men of Soissons, follow the king!
knights, remember your own renown! Burghers, fight for your
firesides! Denis Mountjoy! Upon them! Charge!"

It was the critical moment. Otho might have rallied; and his forces
were still more than double those of the king; while the Count de
Boulogne and the English, though the Earl of Salisbury had been
dashed from his horse by the mace of the bellicose Bishop of
Beauvais, were still maintaining the fight to the left. The well-timed
and well-executed charge of the king, however, accompanied, as he
was, by the choice chivalry of his realm, who had gathered about
him to his rescue, decided the fate of the day. The Germans fled in
confusion. Otho himself narrowly escaped being taken; and though a
part of the right wing of the confederates retreated in somewhat
better array, yet the defeat even there was complete, and the Earl of
Salisbury and the Count de Boulogne were both made prisoners.

For nearly six hours the combat lasted; and, when at last the
flight was complete, the number of prisoners was so great, that
Philip dared not allow his troops to pursue the fugitives for any
length of way, lest he should be mastered at last by those he had
just conquered.

At five o'clock the trumpets sounded to the standard to recall the

pursuers; and thus ended the famous battle of Bovines--a strife and
a victory scarcely paralleled in history.