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172 hurried down with a clam stuck in my gizzard and an untasted goblet of Cyprus on the board behind me.'

'I saw him, my fair lord,' said Terlake, 'an old man with one shoulder higher than the other.'

Tis a sign of good fortune,' quoth Sir Nigel. 'Our path was also crossed by a woman and by a priest, so all should be well with us. What say you, Edricson?'

'I cannot tell, my fair lord. The Romans of old were a very wise people, yet, certes, they placed their faith in such matters. So, too, did the Greeks, and divers other ancient peoples who were famed for their learning. Yet of the moderns there are many who scoff at all omens.'

'There can be no manner of doubt about it,' said Sir Oliver Buttesthorn. 'I can well remember that in Navarre one day it thundered on the left out of a cloudless sky. We knew that ill would come of it, nor had we long to wait. Only thirteen days after, a haunch of prime venison was carried from my very tent door by the wolves, and on the same day two flasks of old vernage turned sour and muddy.'

'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 honourable 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, may serve as a poop guard. Ten archers, with thirty shipmen, under the master