The Black Arrow · Chapter
VI: The “Good Hope” (Concluded) explained
Lord Foxham, wounded and aboard the storm-tossed Good Hope, entrusts Dick Shelton with secret military orders for Richard of Gloucester and a letter to Sir John Hamley regarding Joanna Sedley.
What happens
Lord Foxham, wounded and aboard the storm-tossed Good Hope, entrusts Dick Shelton with secret military orders for Richard of Gloucester and a letter to Sir John Hamley regarding Joanna Sedley. The ship is wrecked on the coast near Tunstall, and the survivors are fired upon by suspicious locals who mistake them for French pirates.
Themes in this chapter
War and Political Conflict
Lord Foxham's secret mission for Richard of Gloucester and the Yorkist cause underscores the broader civil war.
Loyalty and Betrayal
Dick pledges to fulfill Lord Foxham's dying wishes, while the locals' suspicion reflects a fractured loyalty to the realm.
Characters to notice
- Dick Shelton
Receives Lord Foxham's trust and the secret orders for Richard of Gloucester; works to build a raft and leads the survivors ashore.
- Lord Foxham
Lies wounded in the ship, entrusts Dick with military intelligence and a letter about Joanna, and expresses concern for his legacy.
- Will Lawless
Steers the ship through the storm and announces the grounding on a shoal, then broaches a barrel of wine for the crew.
- Greensheve
Helps break up the deck to build a raft and questions why the locals shoot at them.
- Hawksley
Suggests seeking shelter from the suspicious men on the hillock.
- Richard of Gloucester
Mentioned as the intended recipient of Lord Foxham's military intelligence for the Yorkist cause.
Key passages
“I am sore hurt... let there be one by me who, at least, is gentle born; for after having lived nobly and richly all the days of my life, this is a sad pass that I should get my hurt in a little ferreting skirmish, and die here, in a foul, cold ship upon the sea, among broken men and churls.”
Lord Foxham laments his fate, wounded in a minor skirmish and dying aboard a miserable ship among commoners.
Highlights Foxham's aristocratic pride and despair at his undignified death.
“I came hither but to watch these lords at Shoreby, while mine excellent young lord, Richard of Gloucester, prepareth a sufficient force to fall upon and scatter them.”
Foxham reveals his mission to spy on the Lancastrian lords at Shoreby for Richard of Gloucester.
Establishes the political stakes and Dick's new role as messenger.
“They take us to be French pirates. In these most troublesome and degenerate days we cannot keep our own shores of England; but our old enemies, whom we once chased on sea and land, do now range at pleasure, robbing and slaughtering and burning.”
Lord Foxham explains that the locals mistake them for French raiders due to England's weakened defenses.
Reflects the historical context of coastal insecurity during the Wars of the Roses.