The wind sprang up now, I remember, from the east, and I heard Samson say in a glad tone——­

“Thank Heaven for this breeze!  It will prove the very messenger of victory from God.”

“Ay, in good truth,” I said.  “See, even now before we attack them, they drift, though they would stay steady.”

We were now well past Les Casquettes, and I could see clear the great rocky headland of the Guet, and others as high and deadly, that I remember not the names of, loom sharp and clear behind the pirates’ fleet.

The good breeze bore us on, and it was evident that, without feint or device of any kind, we should face our foes fairly, and do battle hand-to-hand with the pirates chiefly by boarding their craft.

And I was glad at this, for I had no fear of the result of the day’s fight if William’s trained men-at-arms, suppled by a hundred battles, met their foes face to face on a few square feet of wood.  The pirates, in their self-deceiving folly, that led them to a swift doom, had the like thought of their own prowess, and indeed they had need be proud of their wild fighting, being men who so fought as caring not for life or escape.

The ships of our front rank sailed swiftly down on their foe, and each crashed heavily into a pirate vessel.  And with the loud crack of wood against wood, and shattered prows, and rocking masts, uprose over the clear water the hideous din of battle.  High above all the cry of “Rou,” and the shouting “Dieu aide,” “God and St. Michael,” “Duke William and St. George.”  Then the wild diabolic cries from the Moors in their harsh ugly tongue, “Le Grand Sarrasin,” or “Le Grand Geoffroy,” echoing among their uncouth war-cries.

I cannot tell what happened that first part of the fight; but I saw a confused sight of our men with a strong rush of might, their bright swords gleaming o’er their heads, leaping into this vessel or that, and blazing with the onrush of their attack upon the Moors, that met them with mad ferocity.  There was a scene on each deck in which I could distinguish not which way the matter went, except that the war-cries of our men sounded ever more triumphant.  Two vessels at the least were so disabled by the shock that they drifted away southward on the jagged rocks with their crews still in them.  I know not whether the rogues in them were saved or lost.

The men of La Belle Mathilde, straight in front of us, had good success, for already, ere we came into action, they had cleared the deck of the vessel they had attacked, and leaving it to drift away were about to run down its neighbour, into whose side some of the crew had climbed, having leapt into the water from the battle with the Normans.  We cast our eyes along the fighting-line and saw the like going on; and then came up their second line, in two curves, east and west, to their friends’ assistance.  Now, this was our signal to ride forward and engage them.  So we swept round to keep them off on either side, and ere I knew what was afoot there ran a great tremble through the ship, and a crack like thunder sent my heart into my mouth, and in a moment I saw the Moors hacking eagerly at the wrists of our soldiers, that clung lustily to the rigging of their craft, that was called La Reine d’enfer.