Part 30 (1/2)

”Nay, sire,” the seaman answered, ”the Spaniards are greater s.h.i.+ps and are painted red. I know not what these may be.”

”But I could hazard a guess!” cried Chandos. ”Surely they are the three s.h.i.+ps with my own men on their way to Brittany.”

”You have hit it, John,” said the King. ”But look, I pray you! What in the name of the Virgin is that?”

Four brilliant stars of flas.h.i.+ng light had shone out from different points of the cloud-bank. The next instant as many tall s.h.i.+ps had swooped forth into the suns.h.i.+ne. A fierce shout rang from the King's s.h.i.+p, and was taken up all down the line, until the whole coast from Dungeness to Winchelsea echoed the warlike greeting. The King sprang up with a joyous face.

”The game is afoot, my friends!” said he. ”Dress, John! Dress, Walter!

Quick all of you! Squires, bring the harness! Let each tend to himself, for the time is short.”

A strange sight it was to see these forty n.o.bles tearing off their clothes and littering the deck with velvets and satins, whilst the squire of each, as busy as an ostler before a race, stooped and pulled and strained and riveted, fastening the ba.s.sinets, the legpieces, the front and the back plates, until the silken courtier had become the man of steel. When their work was finished, there stood a stern group of warriors where the light dandies had sung and jested round Sir John's guitar. Below in orderly silence the archers were mustering under their officers and taking their allotted stations. A dozen had swarmed up to their hazardous post in the little tower in the tops.

”Bring wine, Nicholas!” cried the King. ”Gentlemen, ere you close your visors I pray you to take a last rouse with me. You will be dry enough, I promise you, before your lips are free once more. To what shall we drink, John?”

”To the men of Spain,” said Chandos, his sharp face peering like a gaunt bird through the gap in his helmet. ”May their hearts be stout and their spirits high this day!”

”Well said, John!” cried the King, and the knights laughed joyously as they drank. ”Now, fair sirs, let each to his post! I am warden here on the forecastle. Do you, John, take charge of the afterguard. Walter, James, William, Fitzallan, Goldesborough, Reginald--you will stay with me! John, you may pick whom you will and the others will bide with the archers. Now bear straight at the center, master-s.h.i.+pman. Ere yonder sun sets we will bring a red s.h.i.+p back as a gift to our ladies, or never look upon a lady's face again.”

The art of sailing into a wind had not yet been invented, nor was there any fore-and-aft canvas, save for small headsails with which a vessel could be turned. Hence the English fleet had to take a long slant down channel to meet their enemies; but as the Spaniards coming before the wind were equally anxious to engage there was the less delay. With stately pomp and dignity, the two great fleets approached.

It chanced that one fine carack had outstripped its consorts and came sweeping along, all red and gold, with a fringe of twinkling steel, a good half-mile before the fleet. Edward looked at her with a kindling eye, for indeed she was a n.o.ble sight with the blue water creaming under her gilded prow.

”This is a most worthy and debonair vessel, Master Bunce,” said he to the s.h.i.+pman beside him. ”I would fain have a tilt with her. I pray you to hold us straight that we may bear her down.”

”If I hold her straight, then one or other must sink, and it may be both,” the seaman answered.

”I doubt not that with the help of our Lady we shall do our part,” said the King. ”Hold her straight, master-s.h.i.+pman, as I have told you.”

Now the two vessels were within arrow flight, and the bolts from the crossbowmen pattered upon the English s.h.i.+p. These short thick devil's darts were everywhere humming like great wasps through the air, cras.h.i.+ng against the bulwarks, beating upon the deck, ringing loudly on the armor of the knights, or with a soft m.u.f.fled thud sinking to the socket in a victim.

The bowmen along either side of the Philippa had stood motionless waiting for their orders, but now there was a sharp shout from their leader, and every string tw.a.n.ged together. The air was full of their harping, together with the swish of the arrows, the long-drawn keening of the bowmen and the short deep bark of the under-officers. ”Steady, steady! Loose steady! Shoot wholly together! Twelve score paces! Ten score! Now eight! Shoot wholly together!” Their gruff shouts broke through the high shrill cry like the deep roar of a wave through the howl of the wind.

As the two great s.h.i.+ps hurtled together the Spaniard turned away a few points so that the blow should be a glancing one. None the less it was terrific. A dozen men in the tops of the carack were balancing a huge stone with the intention of dropping it over on the English deck. With a scream of horror they saw the mast cracking beneath them. Over it went, slowly at first, then faster, until with a crash it came down on its side, sending them flying like stones from a sling far out into the sea.

A swath of crushed bodies lay across the deck where the mast had fallen.

But the English s.h.i.+p had not escaped unscathed. Her mast held, it is true, but the mighty shock not only stretched every man flat upon the deck, but had shaken a score of those who lined her sides into the sea.

One bowman was hurled from the top, and his body fell with a dreadful crash at the very side of the prostrate King upon the forecastle. Many were thrown down with broken arms and legs from the high castles at either end into the waist of the s.h.i.+p. Worst of all, the seams had been opened by the crash and the water was gus.h.i.+ng in at a dozen places.

But these were men of experience and of discipline, men who had already fought together by sea and by land, so that each knew his place and his duty. Those who could staggered to their feet and helped up a score or more of knights who were rolling and clas.h.i.+ng in the scuppers unable to rise for the weight of their armor. The bowmen formed up as before. The seamen ran to the gaping seams with oak.u.m and with tar. In ten minutes order had been restored and the Philippa, though shaken and weakened, was ready for battle once more. The King was glaring round him like a wounded boar.

”Grapple my s.h.i.+p with that,” he cried, pointing to the crippled Spaniard, ”for I would have possession of her!”

But already the breeze had carried them past it, and a dozen Spanish s.h.i.+ps were bearing down full upon them.

”We cannot win back to her, lest we show our flank to these others,”

said the s.h.i.+pman.

”Let her go her way!” cried the knights. ”You shall have better than her.”

”By Saint George! you speak the truth,” said the King, ”for she is ours when we have time to take her. These also seem very worthy s.h.i.+ps which are drawing up to us, and I pray you, master-s.h.i.+pman, that you will have a tilt with the nearest.”