Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/416

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376
MILITARY HISTORY, 1399-1485.
[1416.

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

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-

  1. Elmham, 80.
  2. Anon. Chron. in Add. MSS. 1776, f. 67b.