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"That we shall prove," said Goodwin Hawtayne; "but it would be
well, ere they close with us, to raise up the mantlets and
pavises as a screen against their bolts." He shouted a hoarse
order, and his seamen worked swiftly and silently, heightening
the bulwarks and strengthening them. The three ship's anchors
were at Sir Nigel's command carried into the waist, and tied to
the mast, with twenty feet of cable between, each under the care
of four seamen. Eight others were stationed with leather
water-bags to quench any fire-arrows which might come aboard,
while others were sent up the mast, to lie along the yard and
drop stones or shoot arrows as the occasion served.
"Let them be supplied with all that is heavy and weighty in the
ship," said Sir Nigel.
"Then we must send them up Sir Oliver Buttesthorn," quoth Ford.
The knight looked at him with a face which struck the smile from
his lips. "No squire of mine," he said, "shall ever make jest of
a belted knight. And yet," he added, his eyes softening, "I know
that it is but a boy's mirth, with no sting in it.


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