"[36]
He had arranged that a force of three hundred knights, three thousand
mounted men-at-arms, and four thousand foot, under the command of
William the Marshal, with a band of mercenaries under Lou Pescaire,
should march by night from Rouen along the left bank of the Seine, and
fall, under cover of darkness, upon the portion of the French army
which still lay on that side of the river. Meanwhile, seventy
transport vessels, which had been built by Richard to serve either for
sea or river traffic, and as many more boats as could be collected,
were to be laden with provisions for the distressed garrison of the
island fort, and convoyed up the stream by a flotilla of small
warships, manned by "pirates" under a chief named Alan and carrying,
besides their own daring and reckless crews, a force of three thousand
Flemings. Two hundred strokes of the oar, John reckoned, would bring
these ships to the French pontoon; they must break it if they could;
if not, they could at least cooeperate with the Marshal and Lou
Pescaire in cutting off the northern division of the French host from
its comrades and supplies on the left bank, and throw into the island
fort provisions which would enable it to hold out till John himself
should come to its rescue.
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