and down the coast to
the great cogs and galleys which were used either as war-ships or
merchantmen as the occasion served. One of them was at that instant
passing out to sea, a huge galleass, with trumpets blowing and nakers
banging, the flag of Saint George flaunting over the broad purple sail,
and the decks sparkling from end to end with steel. Nigel gave a cry of
pleasure at the splendor of the sight.

"Aye, lad," said Chandos, "it is the Trinity of Rye, the very ship on
which I fought at Sluys. Her deck ran blood from stem to stern that day.
But turn your eyes this way, I beg you, and tell me if you see aught
strange about this town."

Nigel looked down at the noble straight street, at the Roundel Tower,
at the fine church of Saint Thomas, and the other fair buildings of
Winchelsea. "It is all new," said he--"church, castle, houses, all are
new."

"You are right, fair son. My grandfather can call to mind the time when
only the conies lived upon this rock. The town was down yonder by the
sea, until one night the waves rose upon it and not a house was left.
See, yonder is Rye, huddling also on a hill, the two towns like poor
sheep when the waters are out. But down there under the blue water and
below the Camber Sand lies the true Winchelsea--tower, cathedral, walls
and all, even as my grandfather knew it, when the first Edward was young
upon the throne."

For an hour or more Chandos paced upon the ramparts with his young
Squire at his elbow and talked to him of his duties and of the secrets
and craft of warfare, Nigel drinking in and storing in his memory every
word from so revered a teacher. Many a time in after life, in stress and
in danger, he strengthened himself by the memory of that slow walk with
the blue sea on one side and the fair town on the other, when the wise
soldier and noble-hearted knight poured forth his precept and advice as
the master workman to the apprentice.

"Perhaps, fair son," said he, "you are like so many other lads who ride
to the wars, and know so much already that it is waste of breath to
advise them?"

"Nay, my fair lord, I know nothing save that I would fain do my duty and
either win honorable advancement or die worshipful on the field."

"You are wise to be humble," said Chandos; "for indeed he who knows most
of war knows best that there is much to learn. As there is a mystery
of the rivers and a mystery of woodcraft, even so there is a mystery
of warfare by which battles ma