Hewett, Cook, Johnson, Cunningham, your men are of the poop-guard.
Thornbury, Walters, Hackett, Baddlesmere, you are with Sir Oliver on the forecastle.
Simon, you bide with your lord's banner; but ten men must go forward."
Quietly and promptly the men took their places, lying flat upon their faces on the deck, for such was Sir Nigel's order.
Near the prow was planted Sir Oliver's spear, with his arms--a boar's head gules upon a field of gold.
Close by the stern stood Black Simon with the pennon of the house of Loring.
In the waist gathered the Southampton mariners, hairy and burly men, with their jerkins thrown off, their waists braced tight, swords, mallets, and pole-axes in their hands.
Their leader, Goodwin Hawtayne, stood upon the poop and talked with Sir Nigel, casting his eye up sometimes at the swelling sail, and then glancing back at the two seamen who held the tiller.
"Pass the word," said Sir Nigel, "that no man shall stand to arms or draw his bow-string until my trumpeter shall sound.
It would be well that we should seem to be a merchant-ship from Southampton and appear to flee from them."
"We shall see them anon," said the master-shipman.
"Ha, said I not so?
There they lie, the water-snakes, in Freshwater Bay; and mark the reek of smoke from yonder point, where they have been at their devil's work.
See how their shallops pull from the land!
They have seen us and called their men aboard.
Now they draw upon the anchor.
See them like ants upon the forecastle!
They stoop and heave like handy ship men.
But, my fair lord, these are no niefs.
I doubt but we have taken in hand more than we can do.
Each of these ships is a galeasse, and of the largest and swiftest make."
"I would I had your eyes," said Sir Nigel, blinking at the pirate galleys.
"They seem very gallant ships, and I trust that we shall have much pleasance from our meeting with them.
It would be well to pass the word that we should neither give nor take quarter this day.
Have you perchance a priest or friar aboard this ship, Master Hawtayne?"
"No, my fair lord."
"Well, well, it is no great matter for my Company, for they were all houseled and shriven ere we left Twynham Castle; and Father Christopher of the Priory gave me his word that they were as fit to march to heaven as to Gascony.
But my mind misdoubts me as to these Winchester men who have come with Sir Oliver, for they appear to be a very ungodly crew.
Pass the word that the men kneel, and that the under-officers repeat to them the pater, the ave, and the credo."
With a clank of arms, the rough archers and seamen took to their knees, with bent heads and crossed hands, listening to the hoarse mutter from the file-leaders.
It was strange to mark the hush; so that the lapping of the water, the straining of the sail, and the creaking of the timbers grew louder of a sudden upon the ear.
Many of the bowmen had drawn amulets and relics from their bosoms, while he who possessed some more than usually sanctified treasure passed it down the line of his comrades, that all might kiss and reap the virtue.
The yellow cog had now shot out from the narrow waters of the Solent, and was plunging and rolling on the long heave of the open channel.
The wind blew freshly from the east, with a very keen edge to it; and the great sail bellied roundly out, laying the vessel over until the water hissed beneath her lee bulwarks.
Broad and ungainly, she floundered from wave to wave, dipping her round bows deeply into the blue rollers, and sending the white flakes of foam in a spatter over her decks.
On her larboard quarter lay the two dark galleys, which had already hoisted sail, and were shooting out from Freshwater Bay in swift pursuit, their double line of oars giving them a vantage which could not fail to bring them up with any vessel which trusted to sails alone.
High and bluff the English cog; long, black and swift the pirate galleys, like two fierce lean wolves which have seen a lordly and unsuspecting stag walk past their forest lair.
"Shall we turn, my fair lord, or shall we carry on?" asked the master-shipman, looking behind him with anxious eyes.
"Nay, we must carry on and play the part of the helpless merchant."
"But your pennons?
They will see that we have two knights with us."
"Yet it would not be to a knight's honor or good name to lower his pennon.
Let them be, and they will think that we are a wine- ship for Gascony, or that we bear the wool-bales of some mercer of the Staple.
Ma foi, but they are very swift!
They swoop upon us like two goshawks on a heron.
Is there not some symbol or device upon their sails?"
"That on the right," said Edricson, "appears to have the head of an Ethiop upon it."
" 'Tis the badge of Tete-noire, the Norman," cried a seaman- mariner.
"I have seen it before, when he harried us at Winchelsea.
He is a wondrous large and strong man, with no ruth for man, woman, or beast.