The wind was light, and there
was no great difference in point of sailing. The English sailors were
vigilant, and when the Frenchman brailed up his great sail, so as to fall
behind, they at once followed his example. At the end of a quarter of an
hour the effect of the arrows of the thirty archers was so great that
there was much confusion on board the enemy, and Guy thought that,
comparatively small as his force was, an attack might be made. So the
spars were suddenly drawn in and the chains hauled upon. The archers
caught up their axes and joined the men-at-arms, and as the vessels came
together they all leapt with a great shout upon the enemy's deck.
The French knights, whose armour had protected them to some extent from
the slaughter that the arrows had effected among the soldiers, fought
bravely and rallied their men to resistance; but with shouts of
"Agincourt!" the men-at-arms and archers, led by Guy,--who now for the
first time fought in his knightly armour,--were irresistible. They had
boarded at the enemy's stern so as to get all their foes in front of them,
and after clearing the stern castle they poured down into the waist and
gradually won their way along it. After ten minutes' hard fighting the
French admiral and knights were pent up on the fore castle, and defended
the ladder by which it was approached so desperately that Guy ordered Tom,
with a dozen of the archers, to betake themselves to the English fore
castle and to shoot from there, and in a short time the French leaders
lowered their swords and surrendered.
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