with his eyes, his hands, and if need be his heavy
dog-whip, wherever they were wanted.

The seamen of the Basilisk, being from a free port, had the old feud
against the men of the Cinque Ports, who were looked upon by the other
mariners of England as being unduly favored by the King. A ship of the
West Country could scarce meet with one from the Narrow Seas without
blood flowing. Hence sprang sudden broils on the quay side, when with
yell and blow the Thomases and Grace Dieus, Saint Leonard on their lips
and murder in their hearts, would fall upon the Basilisks. Then amid the
whirl of cudgels and the clash of knives would spring the tiger figure
of the young leader, lashing mercilessly to right and left like a tamer
among his wolves, until he had beaten them howling back to their work.
Upon the morning of the fourth day all was ready, and the ropes being
cast off the three little ships were warped down the harbor by their own
pinnaces until they were swallowed up in the swirling folds of a Channel
mist.

Though small in numbers, it was no mean force which Edward had
dispatched to succor the hard-pressed English garrisons in Brittany.
There was scarce a man among them who was not an old soldier, and their
leaders were men of note in council and in war. Knolles flew his flag
of the black raven aboard the Basilisk. With him were Nigel and his own
Squire John Hawthorn. Of his hundred men, forty were Yorkshire Dalesmen
and forty were men of Lincoln, all noted archers, with old Wat of
Carlisle, a grizzled veteran of border warfare, to lead them.

Already Aylward by his skill and strength had won his way to an
under-officership amongst them, and shared with Long Ned Widdington,
a huge North Countryman, the reputation of coming next to famous
Wat Carlisle in all that makes an archer. The men-at-arms too were
war-hardened soldiers, with Black Simon of Norwich, the same who had
sailed from Winchelsea, to lead them. With his heart filled with hatred
for the French who had slain all who were dear to him, he followed
like a bloodhound over land and sea to any spot where he might glut
his vengeance. Such also were the men who sailed in the other ships,
Cheshire men from the Welsh borders in the cog Thomas, and Cumberland
men, used to Scottish warfare, in the Grace Dieu.

Sir James Astley hung his shield of cinquefoil ermine over the quarter
of the Thomas. Lord Thomas Percy, a cadet of Alnwick, famous already
for the high spirit