at the sound of the trumpet to depart.




OF THE BATTLE OF BLANCHE-TAQUE BETWEEN THE KING OF ENGLAND AND SIR
GODEMAR DU FAY


The king of England slept not much that night, for at midnight he
arose and sowned his trumpet: then incontinent they made ready
carriages and all things, and at the breaking of the day they departed
from the town of Oisemont and rode after the guiding of Gobin Agace,
so that they came by the sun-rising to Blanche-taque; but as then the
flood was up, so that they might not pass: so the king tarried there
till it was prime; then the ebb came.

The French king had his currours in the country, who brought him word
of the demeanour of the Englishmen. Then he thought to close the king
of England between Abbeville and the river of Somme, and so to fight
with him at his pleasure. And when he was at Amiens he had ordained a
great baron of Normandy, called sir Godemar du Fay, to go and keep the
passage of Blanche-taque, where the Englishmen must pass or else in
none other place. He had with him a thousand men of arms and six
thousand afoot, with the Genoways: so they went by Saint-Riquier in
Ponthieu and from thence to Crotoy, whereas the passage lay; and also
he had with him a great number of men of the country, and also a great
number of them of Montreuil, so that they were a twelve thousand men
one and other.