Behind it went five smaller cogs crammed with squires, archers and
men-at-arms.
Nigel and his companions lined the ramparts of the castle and
waved their caps as the bluff, burly vessels, with drums beating
and trumpets clanging, a hundred knightly pennons streaming from
their decks and the red cross of England over all, rolled slowly
out to the open sea. Then when they had watched them until they
were hull down they turned, with hearts heavy at being left
behind, to make ready for their own more distant venture.
It took them four days of hard work ere their preparations were
complete, for many were the needs of a small force sailing to a
strange country. Three ships had been left to them, the cog
Thomas of Romney, the Grace Dieu of Hythe, and the Basilisk of
Southampton, into each of which one hundred men were stowed,
besides the thirty seamen who formed the crew. In the hold were
forty horses, amongst them Pommers, much wearied by his long
idleness, and homesick for the slopes of Surrey where his great
limbs might find the work he craved. Then the food and the water,
the bow-staves and the sheaves of arrows, the horseshoes, the
nails, the hammers, the knives, the axes, the ropes, the vats of
hay, the green fodder and a score of other things were packed
aboard. Always by the side of the ships stood the stern young
knight Sir Robert, checking, testing, watching and controlling,
saying little, for he was a man of few words, but with his eyes,
his hands, and if need be his heavy dog-whip, wherever they were
wanted.
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