Page:Royalnavyhistory01clow.djvu/297

 Bayonne, under Bernard of Toulouse, retook Cornet Castle, Jersey: and in August, when they joined the English fleet, Bernard was ordered to hand over the castle to Sir Thomas de Ferrers, and then to return to Bayonne. It was probably felt that in view of the naval activity of France, his presence was more urgently required in the waters of Gascony than in those of the Channel. Moreover Edward still meditated the immediate resumption of active operations on French soil. The admirals were directed to be ready to carry him thither in October; but for one reason or another, the voyage was postponed, first until the middle of February, and finally until July, 1346. In the meantime more ships had come to England from Bayonne, and Peter Donyngan had received command of them, with instructions to arrest other Bayonnese vessels for the royal service.

The Pope made efforts to stay hostilities which, in consequence of the magnitude of the preparations on both sides, threatened to be of an unusually bloody, and perhaps of a decisive character; but to the cardinals, his emissaries, Edward wrote on July 2nd, from Porchester, that he was then about to proceed to France, and had no leisure to speak with them. He embarked from the Isle of Wight on the 10th, and sailed on the 11th with a fleet estimated by Avesbury at a thousand vessels, and by others at eleven hundred large and five hundred small craft. With him, in addition to many noblemen, went the Prince of Wales, ten thousand archers, four thousand men-at-arms, and a number of Irish and Welsh foot-soldiers. On Wednesday, July 12th, the fleet reached La Hogue, and the king at once landed; but the disembarkation of troops and stores was not completed uutil Tuesday, the 18th.

Much of the fleet was immediately sent back to England; but two hundred vessels, with four hundred archers and a hundred men-at-arms, under the Earl of Huntingdon, were retained to operate along the coast. At La Hogue, eleven French ships, eight of which had fore and stern castles, were taken and burnt; at Barfleur, on the 14th, nine ships with fore and stern castles, and several smaller craft, including two crayers, were set on fire; and subsequently the town itself, which was deserted, suffered the same