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Down goes the red cross, and up
springs Simon with the scarlet roses!"
The death of the Genoese leader did indeed bring the resistance
to an end. Amid a thunder of cheering from cog and from galleys
the forked pennon fluttered upon the forecastle, and the galley,
sweeping round, came slowly back, as the slaves who rowed it
learned the wishes of their new masters.
The two knights had come aboard the cog, and the grapplings
having been thrown off, the three vessels now moved abreast
through all the storm and rush of the fight Alleyne had been
aware of the voice of Goodwin Hawtayne, the master-shipman, with
his constant "Hale the bowline! Veer the sheet!" and strange it
was to him to see how swiftly the blood-stained sailors turned
from the strife to the ropes and back. Now the cog's head was
turned Francewards, and the shipman walked the deck, a peaceful
master-mariner once more.
"There is sad scath done to the cog, Sir Nigel," said he. "Here
is a hole in the side two ells across, the sail split through the
centre, and the wood as bare as a friar's poll.


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