replied: "We are not soldiers of the sea, nor maritime adventurers,[1] nor fishermen; but do thou go to death." Hubert was not discouraged, but, having sent for his chaplain, had the sacrament administered to him, and then solemnly enjoined the garrison to let him be hanged rather than surrender the castle, "for it is the key of England." Whereupon all present pledged themselves to obey his commands.[2] Another reported conversation upon the occasion runs as follows. When the people of the Cinque Ports saw the French fleet, and knew it to be commanded by Eustace the Monk, they said: "If this tyrant land, he will lay all waste, for the country is not protected, and our king is far away. Let us, therefore, take our souls in our hands, and meet him while he is at sea; and help will come to us from on high." To one exclaiming, "Is there one among you who is ready this day to die for England?" another answered: "Behold me!" And to the first said: "Take with thee an axe, and when thou seest us alongside the ship of the tyrant, then do thou run up the mast of that same ship, and cut down his banner which is borne aloft, so that thus the other vessels may be scattered and lost, for lack of chief and leader."[3]
The English squadron consisted of sixteen large and well-armed ships, manned with trained seamen of the Cinque Ports, and of about twenty smaller vessels. There were not more than forty in all.[4] But on board, besides Hubert himself, were Sir Philip d'Albini,[5] Sir Henry de Turberville, Sir Richard Suard, and Richard, natural son of King John, some of the bravest of the English knights of that age.
When the English squadron sailed from Dover, on August 24th, the French fleet was already at some distance from Calais,[6] and was making across the Channel diagonally, on a nearly northern course, with a view to rounding the North Foreland and entering the
- ↑ Piratæ.
- ↑ Matt. Paris.
- ↑ Hemingford (Gale), ii., 563.
- ↑ Matt. Paris, p. 206; Hemingford, ii. 563.
- ↑ Sir Philip d'Albini was probably related to the Albinis, Lords of Belvoir Castle. In 1213 he was made Governor of Jersey. After the concession of Magna Charta he supported John and resisted the French, to whose defeat at Lincoln he subsequently contributed. He also contributed greatly to the victory off the South Foreland in 1217. Until 1236, when he made for the second time a journey to the Holy Land, he was intimately connected with naval affairs. He died in Palestine in 1237.
- ↑ Matt. Paris, 206; Guil. de Armorica (Duchesne), v. 90; Rog. of Wendover, v. 28.
