CHAPTER XLV
A FRENCH ARMAMENT
Louis of France, after being so roughly handled by William de Collinghamand the sturdy patriots who followed that knight’s banner that he turnedpale at the thought of the injury done to his dignity, embarked in hasteand confusion, reached the French coast sea-sick, but in safety, andhastened, with visions of a coronation at Westminster, to the court ofParis. But the result was not quite satisfactory. Indeed, he found hisroyal father in no mood to grant the assistance which he required tocomplete the conquest of England. Philip Augustus naturally held thepapal power in such dread, since the humiliating close of his quarrelwith the pope about his marriage with the beautiful Agnes de Méranie,that he protested against being mixed up with the business so distinctlycondemned by the holy see. However, he pointed out that, though hishands were tied, there was no particular reason why Blanche of Castileshould not aid her husband to the utmost of her power, and hinted thathe had no objection to furnish the means of hiring warriors andfreighting ships. A word, says the proverb, is sufficient to the wise.Blanche took the hint, and--perhaps without even for the time neglectingher maternal duties to the young St. Louis, the eldest of what Fullercalls “that princely quaternion of brothers which exceeded each other insome quality: Louis the holiest, Alphonso the subtlest, Charles thestoutest, and Robert the proudest”--applied herself, with characteristicenergy, to the task of fitting out an armament powerful enough to finishthe work which with such high hopes her husband had boldly begun.
The prince, however, did not linger in France. Ere the truce agreed towith Pembroke had expired he was on the sea. Attacked furiously on hisvoyage by the ships of the Cinque Ports, he lost several of his vessels,but personally escaped all harm, and, landing at Sandwich, he, enragedat the Cinque Ports, burned that town, which enjoyed the reputation ofbeing the first place in England at which ships were built, and thenmarching to Dover, he made a second attempt to take the castle. But thisattempt proved as unsuccessful as the first had done, and, findingHubert de Burgh still obstinate, Louis abandoned the enterprise, andproceeded to London, where, however, his reception was infinitely lessenthusiastic than it had been on that too-memorable day of June when thecitizens shouted “Chaire Basileus!” and where, indeed, in spite ofConstantine Fitzarnulph, there was at work that dangerous spirit ofdiscontent which is the parent of popular insurrections.
Meanwhile, Blanche of Castile was all activity and determination inpromoting the objects of her absent husband, and at Calais a fleet ofeighty large ships and a great number of small vessels was equippedunder the eye of Eustace the Monk. The work, however, notwithstandingBlanche’s energy and Eustace’s experience, went on slowly, and it wasnot till the day preceding the Feast of St. Bartholomew that everythingwas ready, and the military force, consisting of three hundred knightsand many thousands of ordinary fighting men, embarked with largeanticipations. Indeed, they might, from all they heard, entertain hopesof rivalling the achievements of the Norman adventurers of a hundred andfifty years earlier, of whom it is written that “men who had crossed thesea in the quilted frock and with the dark wooden bow of foot soldiersappeared upon war horses and girded with the knightly baldric to theeyes of the new recruits who crossed the sea after them; and he who hadcome over a poor knight soon had his own banner and his company ofmen-at-arms, whose rallying cry was his name; so that the drovers ofNormandy and the weavers of Flanders with a little courage and goodfortune soon became in England great men, illustrious barons, and theirnames, base or obscure on one side of the Channel, were noble andglorious on the other.” No wonder that, with such encouraging examplesbefore their eyes, the recruits of Blanche of Castile were enthusiasticand eager.
On the day before the feast of St. Bartholomew the French armament leftCalais, and never, since he left his monastery in Flanders to adopt thelife of a sea-rover, had Eustace the Monk felt more in his element;never, since Robert Fitzwalter and Sayer de Quency reached Paris tooffer Louis a crown, had Blanche of Castile seen so fair a prospect ofsitting, by her husband’s side, on her maternal grandsire’s throne. Itwas, in truth, a noble armament, with a magnificent display of paintedshields and gorgeous banners, and much feudal pomp to strike the eye andimpress the imagination; and Eustace the Monk was in great glee as heput to sea, with a fair, swelling wind which rapidly carried him towardsthe English coast, his own ship leading the van, and guiding the otherson their way to the land which they looked on as their prey.
Next day, however, when their voyage seemed most prosperous, and all onboard were rejoicing in the prospect of ere long being in London, andready to march at the bidding of their Lord Louis, and when they wereendeavouring to make the estuary of the Thames, and sail up the river,the watch stationed on the mast of Eustace’s ship suddenly shoutedaloud.
“What is it?” cried Eustace, eagerly.
“I spy a ship, and it appears to me to be an Englishman,” answered thewatch.
“Are there more than one?” inquired Eustace, with an air ofindifference.
“Ho!” cried the watch, after a pause, “I see two, three, four, and somany, God help me, there must be twenty!”
Eustace the Monk laughed scornfully, and made a gesture which expressedlofty contempt of such foes.
“Doubtless,” observed he, “they are the mariners of the Cinque Ports;these English wretches are on their way to Calais. But they are notworthy of our thoughts, and they will find that it is of no use; for theCalesians have been forewarned against them, and forewarned isforearmed. So on to London; and Montjoie, St. Denis! for us and our goodLord Louis.”
And as Eustace spake, soldiers and sailors with one accord raised a longand deafening cheer which passed from ship to ship.
But ere that cheer died away the scene had very considerably changed,for the fleet of which the monk-pirate had spoken so contemptuously wasbearing down before the wind on the French armament, as the hawk doesupon the quarry.
Eustace grew pale.
Runnymede and Lincoln Fair: A Story of the Great Charter Page 47