f the parish
of Sailly.[11] We have here, then, a convergence of proof which confirms
the vaguer traditional site, for the end of this line upon the river,
passing between the tombs and the old mill, strikes the bank within the
limits of distance from Port which were set down in the local notes
printed in 1840.

But there is more. The forming of successive embankments one below the
other for the gradual reclamation of land in the Somme estuary was not an
easy matter. They had to be strong to withstand a strong tide, and there
was no good bottom to be found in the deep mud of the valley floor. It is
a significant evidence of this difficulty that the embankments stand so
far apart, and that the last has had to take advantage of the
long-established work of the railway viaduct. It is therefore a legitimate
conjecture that the hard bottom afforded by the old Blanchetaque would be
made use of, and as a fact we find the principal embankment between Port
and the sea coinciding exactly with the line established by the tombs, the
parish boundaries, and the site of the mill.

There is even more than this. If we follow the present embankment across
the estuary towards the southern bank, we find ourselves checked before
reaching that bank by the now canalised and artificial straight ditch of
the Somme. There is no bridge, but on the further side leading across the
remaining 700 yards to the southern bank, a village road exactly continues
the direction, and this road, older than the reclamation of the valley, is
the last converging point clinching the argument.

It cannot be doubted that the road leading from Saigneville northward
across the flat to the canal, and continued beyond the canal by the
embankment, is the line of the old Blanchetaque.[12]

Though the French army had been pursuing Edward during his march upon the
left bank of the Somme, the possibility of his getting across the estuary
had not been neglected, and a force had been detached to watch the right
bank at the point where the only passage across the stream, Blanchetaque,
touched that right bank.

Here one of Philip's nobles, Godemard de Fay, was waiting with a
considerable force to oppose the passage. The exact size of this force is
not easy to determine, for it is variously stated, even by contemporary
authorities, but we are fairly safe if we reckon it at more than 2000 and
less than 4000 men, some hundreds of whom were mounted knights. In other
words, it c