"God keep it from merry England!" he often thought, and yet he knew that all the messengers from home brought rumors that a Scottish host was gathering fast to take advantage of King Edward's absence.
"Evil to them!" he said angrily. "If the good archbishop be also training the men of the north counties and the middle, I trust Sir Robert Johnstone will face them with bowmen as good as are those of Longwood and Arden. We can give him no aid, but to-morrow we shall get to Caen."
The prince was with the king that night and Richard saw him not. Nor was there message for him to carry in the morn, but there came to him a summons from Marshal de Harcourt.
"Richard of Wartmont," said his captain when they met, "Sir Thomas Holland and Sir Peter Legh, with knights and men-at-arms, form the advance on Caen. With them go thou and double thy number of the archers of Arden. With thee will also be the Irish and the Welsh, for I learn that the people of this town have gone mad with conceit. They will face us outside of their walls. If we may break their front, we may enter Caen in their foolish company."
Like word went back to the king, praying him to hasten, that he might see his standard lifted over the capital of Normandy.
Good was the planning of De Harcourt, for, as the English van emerged early that day, behold a numerous but motley and ill-ordered array of armed citizens and country folk, drawn out to meet them. With them were many knights and men-at-arms, but the marshal spoke truly when he said of them:
"An army that is not an army. We will scatter them like chaff!"
"Seest thou yonder town?" asked Sir Thomas Holland of Richard, as they paused on the brow of a low hill to let the bowmen come up.
Richard looked earnestly, for the walls were wide-reaching, and they seemed to be high and strong. On one side of the great town arose a castle of surpassing splendor, and he had heard that the Governor of Caen, Sir John de Blargny, held it with three hundred Genoese crossbowmen and other forces. There were church spires also, and of these arose one higher than the rest, at which Sir Thomas pointed with his lance.
"In a crypt of that church," he said, "rest the bones of William the Conqueror. From this town did he and his host march to the overthrow of King Harold at Hastings."