[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.’  Then the king answered quickly and said:  ’Wherefore?  This is a good token for me, for the land desireth to have me.’  Of the which answer all his men were right joyful.  So that day and night the king lodged on the sands, and in the meantime discharged the ships of their horses and other baggages:  there the king made two marshals of his host, the one the lord Godfrey of Harcourt and the other the earl of Warwick, and the earl of Arundel constable.  And he ordained that the earl of Huntingdon should keep the fleet of ships with a hundred men of arms and four hundred archers:  and also he ordained three battles, one to go on his right hand, closing to the sea-side, and the other on his left hand, and the king himself in the midst, and every night to lodge all in one field.

Thus they set forth as they were ordained, and they that went by the sea took all the ships that they found in their ways:  and so long they went forth, what by sea and what by land, that they came to a good port and to a good town called Barfleur, the which incontinent was won, for they within gave up for fear of death.  Howbeit, for all that, the town was robbed, and much gold and silver there found, and rich jewels:  there was found so much riches, that the