weighed. Both sides were equally eager to get to close quarters, and the French advanced handsomely; but very little wind was stirring, and it was nine o'clock[1] ere the battle opened. The ships grappled one another as they came violently into collision, and, as usual, the people in the lofty Genoese carracks enjoyed great
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/The_Royal_Navy%2C_a_History_from_the_Earliest_Times_to_Present_Volume_1_-_From_the_MS._Life_of_Richard_Beauchamp%2C_Earl_of_Warwick_%28p_376%29.jpg/300px-The_Royal_Navy%2C_a_History_from_the_Earliest_Times_to_Present_Volume_1_-_From_the_MS._Life_of_Richard_Beauchamp%2C_Earl_of_Warwick_%28p_376%29.jpg)
FROM THE MS. LIFE OF RICHARD BEAUCHAMP, EARL OF WARWICK, BY JOHN ROUS, WHO DIED 1491.
(Cotton MSS. Julius E. iv. 6.)
advantage over those in the comparatively low-built English ships, the latter being hardly able with their pikes to reach the soldiers on the decks of the larger vessels; but the English were not to be denied, and after between five and six hours of hot conflict,[2] victory began to declare itself. Several French ships were carried, where-