e
Somme and the sea.

Edward sent out his marshals with their battalions to find a
passage, but they were unsuccessful, until a peasant led
them to the tidal ford of Blanchetaque. Although desperately
opposed by fully twelve thousand French, under the Norman
baron Sir Godemar du Fay, they effected a crossing, and,
marching on, encamped in the fields near Crecy. The King of
France with the main body of his troops had taken up his
quarters in Abbeville.

BATTLE OF SLUYS

When the King's fleet was almost got to Sluys, they saw so many masts
standing before it that they looked like a wood. The King asked the
commander of his ship what they could be, who answered that he imagined
they must be that armament of Normans which the King of France kept at
sea and which had so frequently done him much damage, had burned his
good town of Southampton, and taken his large ship the Christopher. The
King replied: "I have for a long time wished to meet with them, and now,
please God and St. George, we will fight them; for, in truth, they have
done me so much mischief that I will be revenged on them if it be
possible."

The King drew up all his vessels, placing the strongest in the front,
and on the wings his archers. Between every two vessels with archers
there was one of men-at-arms. He stationed some detached vessels as a
reserve, full of archers, to assist and help such as might be damaged.
There were in this fleet a great many ladies from England, countesses,
baronesses, and knights' and gentlemen's wives, who were going to attend
on the Queen at Ghent. These the King had guarded most carefully by
three hundred men-at-arms and five hundred archers.

When the King of England and his marshals had properly divided the
fleet, they hoisted their sails to have the wind on their quarter, as
the sun shone full in their faces, which they considered might be of
disadvantage to them, and stretched out a little, so that at last they
got the wind as they wished. The Normans, who saw them tack, could not
help wondering why they did so, and said they took good care to turn
about, for they were afraid of meddling with them. They perceived,
however, by his banner, that the King was on board, which gave them
great joy, as they were eager to fight with him; so they put their
vessels in proper order, for they were expert and gallant men on the
seas. They filled the Christopher, the large ship which they had taken
the year bef