his teeth the crisp winter air on his face and blowing his yellow curls from under his his cheeks were flushed and his eyes shining for the blood of a hundred fighting saxon ancestors was beginning to stir in his veins what was that he asked as a hissing sharp drawn voice seemed to whisper in his ear the smiled and pointed with his foot to where a short heavy cross bow quarrel stuck quivering in the boards at the same instant the man stumbled forward upon his and lay lifeless upon the deck a blood stained feather out from his back as stooped to raise him the air seemed to be alive with the sharp of the and he could hear them on the deck like apples at a raise two more by the said sir quietly and another man to the cried the keep them in play with ten of your men the knight continued and let ten of sir s do as much for the i have no mind as yet to how them how much they have to fear from us ten picked shots under stood in line across tbe broad deck and it was a lesson to the young who had seen nothing of war to note how orderly and how cool were these old soldiers how quick the command and how prompt the carrying out ten moving like one their comrades crouched beneath the with many a rough jest and many a scrap of criticism or advice higher higher i � put thy body into it will i � forget not the wind i so ran the muttered chorus while high above it rose the sharp of the strings the hiss of the shafts and the short draw your arrow kick your arrow shoot wholly together i from the and now both were at work from the but so covered and protected that save at the moment of discharge no glimpse could be caught of them a huge brown rock from the sang over their heads and plunged sullenly into the slope of a wave another from the into the waist broke the back of a horse and its way through the side of the vessel two others flying together tore a great gap in the st upon the sail and brushed three of sir s men at arms from the the master looked at the knight with a troubled face they keep their distance from us said he our is over good and they will not close what defence can we make against the stones i think i may trick them the knight answered cheerfully and passed his order to the instantly five of them threw up their hands and fell prostrate upon the deck one had already been slain by a bolt so that there were but four upon their feet that should give them heart said sir the which crept along on either side with a slow measured swing of their great oars the water and foaming under their sharp stems they still hold aloof cried then down with two shouted their leader that will do ma foi but thej come to oar like to the to arms men i the behind me and the round the stand fast with the in the waist and be for a cast now blow out the trumpets and may ood s be with the honest men as he spoke a roar of voices and a roll of drums came from either and the water was lashed into spray by the hurried beat of a hundred down they one on the right one on the left the sides and black with men and with weapons in heavy clusters they hung upon the all ready for a spring � faces white faces brown faces yellow and faces black fair fierce from the and fiery from the states of all hues and countries and marked solely by the common stamp of a wild beast ferocity up on either side with oars trailing to save them from snapping they poured in a living torrent with horrid yell and shrill upon the but yet was the cry and still the scream when there rose up from the shadow of those silent the long lines of the english and the arrows in a deadly among the unprepared masses upon the decks from the higher sides of the the could shoot straight down at a range which was so short as to enable a cloth yard shaft to pierce through mail coats or to a shield though it were an inch thick of wood one moment saw the s crowded with rushing figures waving arms faces the next it was a blood with bodies piled three deep upon each other the living behind the dead to shelter themselves from that sudden storm blast of death on either side the whom sir had chosen for the purpose had cast their over the side of the so that the three vessels locked in an iron grip heavily forward upon the swell m and now set in a fell and fierce fight one of a thousand of which no has spoken and no poet sung through all the centuries and over all those southern waters nameless men have fought in nameless places their sole monument a protected coast and an foi e and aft the had cleared the decks but from either side the s had poured down into the waist where the and were pushed back and so mingled with their foes that it was impossible for their comrades above to draw string to help them it was a wild chaos where and sword rose and fell while englishman and italian staggered and on a deck which was with bodies and slippery with blood the of blows the cries of the stricken the short deep shout of the and the fierce of the rose together in a tumult while the breath of the 