cted formed of oars, spars, and
planking, fastened across the forecastle decks. Behind these barriers
archers and Genoese cross-bowmen were posted. There was a second line of
archers in the fighting-tops, for since the times of Norse warfare the
masts had become heavier, and now supported above the crossyard a kind of
crow's nest where two or three bowmen could be stationed, with shields hung
round them as a parapet.

The fleet thus was converted into a series of three long, narrow floating
forts. It was an intelligible plan of defence for a weak fleet against a
strong one, but a hopeless plan for an armament strong enough to have met
its opponents on the open sea, ship to ship. At Svold, Erik Jarl had shown
that such an array could be destroyed piecemeal if assailed on an exposed
flank, and at Sluys the left, where the "Great Cristopher" lay to seaward,
positively invited such an attack.

King Edward saw his advantage as soon as his knights came back from their
adventurous ride and told him what they had seen, and he arranged his plans
accordingly. His great ships were to lead the attack, and concentrate their
efforts on the left of the French line. The rest were to pass inside them
and engage the enemy in front, on the left, and centre. The enemy had by
tying up his ships made it impossible to come to the rescue of the left,
even if the narrow waters of the estuary would have allowed him to deploy
his force into line. The English would have, and could not fail to keep, a
local superiority from the very outset on the left of the enemy, and once
it came to close quarters they would clear the French and Genoese decks
from end to end of the line, taking ship after ship. While the attack
developed the English archers would prepare the way for it by thinning the
ranks of their enemies on the ships in the centre and then on the right.

At dawn on 24 June--the day of battle--the wind was blowing fair into the
mouth of the Eede, but the tide was ebbing, and the attack could not be
driven home till it turned, and gave deep water everywhere between the
banks of the inlet. King Edward used the interval to array his fleet and
get it into position for the dash into the river. His ships stood out to
sea on the starboard tack, a brave sight with the midsummer sun shining on
the white sails, the hundreds of banners glowing with red, blue, white, and
gold, the painted shields hanging on poop and bulwark. On the raised bows
and sterns