eat towns that be not walled, whereby your men shall
have such winning, that they shall be the better thereby twenty year
after; and, sir, ye may follow with your army till ye come to Caen in
Normandy: sir, I require you to believe me in this voyage,'

The king, who was as then but in the flower of his youth, desiring
nothing so much as to have deeds of arms, inclined greatly to the
saying of the lord Harcourt, whom he called cousin. Then he commanded
the mariners to set their course to Normandy, and he took into his
ship the token of the admiral the earl of Warwick, and said now he
would be admiral for that viage, and so sailed on before as governour
of that navy, and they had wind at will. Then the king arrived in the
isle of Cotentin, at a port called Hogue Saint-Vaast.[4]

[4] Saint-Vaast-de la Hogue.

Tidings anon spread abroad how the Englishmen were aland: the towns of
Cotentin sent word thereof to Paris to king Philip. He had well heard
before how the king of England was on the sea with a great army, but
he wist not what way he would draw, other into Normandy, Bretayne or
Gascoyne. As soon as he knew that the king of England was aland in
Normandy, he sent his constable the earl of Guines, and the earl of
Tancarville, who were but newly come to him from his son from the
siege at Alguillon, to the town of Caen, commanding them to keep that
town against the Englishmen. They said they would do their best: they
departed from Paris with a good number of men of war, and daily there
came more to them by the way, and so came to the town of Caen, where
they were received with great joy of men of the town and of the
country thereabout, that were drawn thither for surety. These lords
took heed for the provision of the town, the which as then was not
walled. The king thus was arrived at the port Hogue Saint-Vaast near
to Saint-Saviour the Viscount[5] the right heritage to the lord
Godfrey of Harcourt, who as then was there with the king of England.

[5] Saint-Sauveur-le-Vicomte.

HOW THE KING OF ENGLAND RODE IN THREE BATTLES THROUGH NORMANDY

When the king of England arrived in the Hogue Saint-Vaast, the king
issued out of his ship, and the first foot that he set on the ground,
he fell so rudely, that the blood brast out of his nose. The knights
that were about him took him up and said: 'Sir, for God's sake enter
again into your ship, and come not aland this day, for this is but an
evil sign for us.