70 REIGN OF ELIZA&E TH. [CH. 4 1 . women were carrying and wheeling earth for them. Of the English pioneers but sixty remained alive, and the French cannon were already searching and sweeping the streets. Reinforcements were hurried over by hundreds and then by thousands. Hale, vigorous English country- men, they were landed on that fatal quay : the deadly breath of the destroyer passed upon them, and in a few days or hours they fell down, and there were none to bury them, and the commander could but clamour for more and more and more. On the nth of July but fifteen hundred men were left. In ten days more at the pre- sent death rate Warwick said he would have but three hundred alive. 1 All failed except English hearts. ' Not- withstanding the deaths/ Sir Adrian Poynings reported, ' their courage is so good as if they be supplied with men and victual they trust by God's help yet to with- stand the force of the enemy and to render the Queen a good account thereof.' 2 Those who went across from England, though going, as they knew, to all but certain death, 'kept their high courage and heart for the service.' 8 Ship after ship arrived at Havre with its doomed freight of living men, yet Warwick wrote that still his numbers waned, that the new comers were not enough to repair the waste. The ovens were broken with the 1 "Warwick to the Council, July u : FORBES, vol. ii. Endorsed ' Haste, post haste for thy life ! Haste, haste, haste ! ' 2 Sir Adrian Poynings to Cecil, July 6 : Domestic MSS., Elizabeth. 3 Sir Adrian Poynings to Cecil, July 9 : Domestic MSS., Elizabeth.
