Ma foi, but they are very swift! They
swoop upon us like two goshawks on a heron. Is there not some
symbol or device upon their sails?"
"That on the right," said Edricson, "appears to have the head of
an Ethiop upon it."
"'Tis the badge of Tete-noire, the Norman," cried a seaman-mariner.
"I have seen it before, when he harried us at Winchelsea. He is
a wondrous large and strong man, with no ruth for man, woman, or
beast. They say that he hath the strength of six; and, certes,
he hath the crimes of six upon his soul. See, now, to the poor
souls who swing at either end of his yard-arm!"
At each end of the yard there did indeed hang the dark figure of
a man, jolting and lurching with hideous jerkings of its limbs at
every plunge and swoop of the galley.
"By St. Paul!" said Sir Nigel, "and by the help of St. George and
Our Lady, it will be a very strange thing if our black-headed
friend does not himself swing thence ere he be many hours older.
But what is that upon the other galley?"
"It is the red cross of Genoa. This Spade-beard is a very noted
captain, and it is his boast that there are no seamen and no
archers in the world who can compare with those who serve the
Doge Boccanegra.
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