reached Marseilles, from which, after a brief delay for necessary repairs, they followed the kings to the Straits of Messina, where they were all assembled on the 14th of September.[1]
Arrival at Messina. Vinisauf[2] has described in glowing language the appearance of the fleet as it entered Messina. "As soon as the people heard of its arrival," he says, "they rushed in crowds to the shore to behold the glorious king of England, and at a distance saw the sea covered with innumerable galleys, and the sounds of trumpets from afar, with the sharper and shriller blasts of clarions, sounded in the rear, and they beheld the galleys rowing in order nearer to the land, adorned and furnished with all manner of arms, countless pennons floating in the wind, ensigns at the ends of the lances, the beaks of the galleys distinguished by various paintings, and glittering shields suspended to the prows. The sea appeared to boil with the multitude of the rowers. The clangour of their trumpets was deafening; the greatest joy was testified at the arrival of the various multitudes, when thus our magnificent king, attended by crowds of those who navigated the galleys, as if to see what was unknown to him, or to be beheld by those to whom he was unknown, stood on a prow more ornamented and higher than the others, and, landing, displayed himself elegantly adorned to all who pressed to the shore to see him."
Number of ships. It was not, however, till the following year
- ↑ Peter Langtoft says that Richard's own ship was called the "Trenche-le-mer," a good name for a swift sailing vessel; and the name of Trenchemer occurs frequently in subsequent records, even as late as Henry V., as that of commanders of ships.
- ↑ Geoffry de Vinisauf, ap. Gale, Script. Hist. Anglic., vol. ii.
