"
"You may bring my harness from below," said Sir Nigel to his
squires, "and also, I pray you, bring up Sir Oliver's and we
shall don it here. Ye may then see to your own gear; for this
day you will, I hope, make a very honorable entrance into the
field of chivalry, and prove yourselves to be very worthy and
valiant squires. And now, Sir Oliver, as to our dispositions:
would it please you that I should order them or will you?"
"You, my cockerel, you. By Our Lady! I am no chicken, but I
cannot claim to know as much of war as the squire of Sir Walter
Manny. Settle the matter to your own liking."
"You shall fly your pennon upon the fore part, then, and I upon
the poop. For foreguard I shall give you your own forty men,
with two-score archers. Two-score men, with my own men-at-arms
and squires, will serve as a poop-guard. Ten archers, with
thirty shipmen, under the master, may hold the waist while ten
lie aloft with stones and arbalests. How like you that?"
"Good, by my faith, good! But here comes my harness, and I must
to work, for I cannot slip into it as I was wont when first I set
my face to the wars.
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